Does bacteria produce ethanol/alcohol

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by inchrisin, Mar 24, 2012.

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  1. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    A simple question that I never gave much thought to. If you add bret, or lactobacillis to beer, does the bacteria produce alcohol in the same way way that yeast does?
     
  2. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    Not a simple question! You are asking for a generic characterization of thousands of distinct organisms.

    Having said that, brett will produce alcohol just like any brewing yeast (brett are yeast, not bacteria); it's just more prone to side reactions that produce interesting flavors. Brett can do some interesting things to 'finished' beer in storage too but that is not part of your question and I'm far too lazy to enumerate all the things brett can do.

    Lacto, for the most part, just make lactic acid and little to no alcohol. But, again, they are a big family and I don't know what all of them can do.
     
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  3. tprokop7

    tprokop7 Initiate (0) Feb 16, 2006 Massachusetts

    The lacto available from white labs (according to Morebeer) is lactobacillus delbrueckii. Delbrueckii is homofermentative (does not produce alcohol). There are a lot of heterofermentative lacto species (produce lactic acid, alcohol, and CO2) but I'm not sure how common they are in brewing.

    As skivt said, Brett (which is yeast, not bacteria) does produce alcohol along with other compounds. A number of beers are made with Brett (either a single strain or a mixed culture) as the only fermenter, like Sanctification and Superfriends. When you give Brett the right conditions, you can get it to act a lot like sacchro.
     
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