The Counting Yeast Cells Microscope: A Brewer’s Must Have
There was a time when brewers did not have to worry about how to work with a counting yeast cells microscope.
Yeast just did its thing, and brewers counted on that.
Those days are long gone, however. It is of course a blessing and a curse, but now that we’re here, it is important to understand how we got here and what to do to move forward.
Yeast Cells
From the very beginning, yeast have managed to thrive in their natural state, doing their one job.
And it has benefited us humans for as long as we have records of fermentation.
By all accounts, monkeys managed to figure out fermentation; yeast is that easy to work with.
It’s true.
Anthropologists have discovered tribes of monkeys that wait for fruit to fall from the tree and ripen to the point of rotting. Yeast comes in, ferments away, and then the monkeys have wild drunken weekends.
Another tribe has been noted to tap palm trees for their sap and then leave the sap out to ferment.
Drunken palm wine weekends follow.
So, it is not a stretch to imagine that if our monkey relatives have figured out the wonder of yeast and fermentation, that our ancestors also tapped into this glorious natural occurrence.
Thus, it has been since the beginning then that we have never had to worry about yeast cells.
Yeast is, we know now, a singled celled living organism that thrives in most environments.
It can reproduce with or without oxygen and sexually or asexually.
Pretty much the only thing that will kill it is a long-term absence of the sugars it feeds on or a super-hot environment.
Temps above 120 degrees with kill yeast, in the same way they will kill alcohol, the product of yeast.
Barring their natural killers, yeast cells will hover in the environment, hang out on surfaces, and actively seek sugar to ferment.
For this reason, wine has been part of the human experience for as long as we have been human.
Even beer, that happy accident, has thrived as a virtually natural resource for thousands of years.
And what would we do without leavened bread?
These happy yeast cells have given us so much; it is unfortunate we are now in a position to wonder if they are even alive before we harness their power.
Yet, we do.
Yeast Viability
For centuries, brewers cropped and harvested their own yeast, pitching and repitching from batches of their own banks.
But with the rise of industrialization, yeast became a commercial product.
Corporations promised yeast viability, live and active yeast cells shipped right to your door for your brewing delight.
And we lost our connection to our yeast, coming to rely on yeast manufacturers to make good on their promises.
Now, with supply chain issues, inflation, and companies failing to deliver on their guarantees, brewers are finding their ways back to more in house control of their product.
Not only are brewers cropping and growing their own yeast banks again, but we now have the tools to measure the quantity and quality of the products we keep in house.
We want to measure yeast viability, the number of living cells in a particular batch, for several reasons.
Most brewers agree that yeast viability should be higher than 95% to pitch, just to get from start to finish of fermentation without hiccups.
Even as low as 70% viability can lead to a strong batch of beer, but you want to know those numbers going in so you can correct for them if necessary.
Furthermore, yeast viability relates directly to the consistency of your batch.
The same strain of yeast, at a similar viability, will lead to the same flavors and aromas resulting from the fermentation process.
Large variations in viability can lead to variations in the end product.
And every brewer knows consistency is key to loyal customers.
Finally, yeast viability is often our best indicator of yeast vitality, just how active those yeast cells are.
And the more active, the better performance.
Today, it is essential that brewers know their yeast well, can count yeast cells as well measure yeast viability and vitality.
To perform these calculations and measurements, we need to invest in top-of-the-line equipment that won’t let us down or leave us wondering if or where we went wrong.
Counting Yeast Cells Microscope
Fortunately, as needs arise, innovators respond.
Brewers can rely on a market flush with the counting yeast cells microscopes necessary to make their calculations.
Common wisdom says all brewers who hope to master their craft should have a microscope with 400x magnitude, counting chambers, methylene blue or violet solution, Pasteur pipettes, dilution tubes, and gloves and wipes to keep everything clean.
With the proper equipment and patience and practice, you can become a great enough lab tech to learn the methods that will help you master the art of yeast handling.
You can not only count your yeast cells to check how many yeast cell you actually have in each batch, but you can also, with all of this equipment, ensure you have viable yeast in those batches with a procedure that involves loading your yeast into a dilution tube, diluting it with water and adding a solution, which will dye the dead cells and alert you to how many cells you have living and ready to pitch.
Again, the ideal is above 95% living cells in each batch you intend to pitch, but brewing is often done with more than 85%, and will even go as low as 70%.
You can also perform yeast cell counts during fermentation to ensure your yeast is performing as expected.
Furthermore, you can even calculate your pitch rate with all of the above information.
And, of course, if you want to avoid any errors and, frankly, the hassle of manual cell counting, you can always choose an automated yeast cell counter.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power.
And in the brewing world, it pays to be powerful.
Cheers!
If you want to switch from manual to automated cell counting and you’re interested in finding out more about our technology and how it can help you save work hours and improve the cost-efficiency of your business, drop us a line at [email protected] or check out the product pages (for beer or wine):
- Oculyze BB 2.0 (Better Brewing) Yeast Cell Counter App + Hardware
- Oculyze FW (Fermentation Wine) Yeast Cell Counter App + Hardware
Also, you can now get access to a fully functional demo account to test our Web App. Completely free of charge and with no commitment to purchase.
