Identification of brewing spoilage organisms

Once a colony has been isolated from any of the stages above the next step is to identify it. Identification is necessary to determine whether or not it represents a risk in terms of spoilage. Preliminary identification of many of the microbes of significance in brewing has traditionally been made on the basis of the following few simple characteristics of the cells  

Further identification is made on the basis of biochemical properties such as 

These tests can be carried out individually, for example, in broth media containing the specifically required nutrients and/or reagents, but they are more commonly performed using commercial kits or automated systems which have the potential to give a rapid identification based on biochemical profiles. 

Bergey s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology is the standard reference for laboratory identification of bacteria. Dichotomous keys, which incorporate information 

lijima, K., Suzuki, K., Motoyama, Y., Ogata, T., Kitagawa, Y. (2009). Rapid detection and identification of beer-spoilage lactic acid bacteria by microcolony method. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 108(2), 124—129. 

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