ERIC Number: EJ920488
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Nov
Pages: 4
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Brewing Beer in the Laboratory: Grain Amylases and Yeast's Sweet Tooth
Gillespie, Blake; Deutschman, William A.
Journal of Chemical Education, v87 n11 p1244-1247 Nov 2010
Brewing beer provides a straightforward and robust laboratory counterpart to classroom discussions of fermentation, a staple of the biochemistry curriculum. An exercise is described that provides several connections between lecture and laboratory content. Students first extract fermentable carbohydrates from whole grains, then ferment these with brewer's yeast. Refractive index, specific gravity, CO[subscript 2] evolution, and thin-layer chromatography are used as metrics of carbohydrate consumption. Instructors are thus provided a flexible toolkit for qualitative and quantitative analysis of both variable grain amylase activity and anaerobe fuel preferences. (Contains 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Science Laboratories, Biochemistry, College Science, Science Instruction, Scientific Concepts, Measurement Techniques, Science Process Skills
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A