[roffenburger]

Here is some other random stuff from a day's work...
Penicillium-Lactophenol aniline blue tape mount

Penicillium on potato flake agar

Aspergillus-LP tape mount

Actinomycetes gram stain

[Kaiser]

I'll have to try using tape myself. Never thought of it. Did you have to stain the mold?

Here is something I'm seeing quite often in my beers:



My first thought was that this is bacteria but it seems a bit long and for that and the beer tastes clean. Maybe crystals of sorts.

Kai

[roffenburger]

The structures are stained on the slide. We use it to identify mold. It can be tricky because the identifying structures take a while to form. The media of choice is potato flake agar, but as an alternative, sabouraud dextrose agar can be used, but the structures don't develop as well. If you're dealing with mold, it should be done in a biosafety cabinet, as some species like penicillium, aspergillus, cladosporium, etc can be VERY powdery and get all over, which you obviously don't want in your brewery.

Here is the process anyways:
First make a line of lactophenol aniline blue on a slide

Take fungal tape between index finger and thumb, and touch it to the mold. Start in the center of the slide and place the tape on the slide. avoid trapping air. Scotch tape will work as well.

LP tape mount

[ndcube]

I'll have to try using tape myself. Never thought of it. Did you have to stain the mold?

Here is something I'm seeing quite often in my beers:



My first thought was that this is bacteria but it seems a bit long and for that and the beer tastes clean. Maybe crystals of sorts.

Kai

Diatom?

[Kaiser]

Those things seem to grow though. I don't remember them being that large before.

Kai

[dimik]

Holy cow!
I leave this forum for a few months and come back to a "gram staining your beer" thread! lol great topic guys! really nice photos.
I didn't expect people to play with microscopes, stains, hemocytometer and blood agar (that must have been the most surprising part of it) in the name of homebrewing. Great job! Keep it up

[1vertical]

Those things seem to grow though. I don't remember them being that large before.

Kai

Kai, I googled rod bacillus and believe that is what you are looking at....
we do live in a biological soup of sorts.

[MrNate]

This thread makes me want to buy a microscope. Then it makes me not want to buy a microscope.

Very informative, though.

[bluesman]

This thread makes me want to buy a microscope. Then it makes me not want to buy a microscope.

Very informative, though.

+1

Very interesting stuff guys. I love the pics.

[Kaiser]

Kai, I googled rod bacillus and believe that is what you are looking at....
we do live in a biological soup of sorts.

It does look very similar, except for the size. From what I know bacteria are much smaller than yeast but these things can get as large as yeast cells. I once saw what bacteria looks like when I looked at a wort stability test after it started fermenting. It was a sea of very small rods and dots. Much smaller than these rods that I commonly see in wort and beer. Besides that, none of the beers tasted infected. That should have been the case if they were bacteria and given their density.

Kai

[karlh]

Kai, I googled rod bacillus and believe that is what you are looking at....
we do live in a biological soup of sorts.

It does look very similar, except for the size. From what I know bacteria are much smaller than yeast but these things can get as large as yeast cells. I once saw what bacteria looks like when I looked at a wort stability test after it started fermenting. It was a sea of very small rods and dots. Much smaller than these rods that I commonly see in wort and beer. Besides that, none of the beers tasted infected. That should have been the case if they were bacteria and given their density.

Kai

I agree with you Kai bacillus are much smaller than what you are seeing.  It could be some mutant yeast cells.  Given the size its way too big for bacteria.  Is this a yeast that you have been culturing for a time, or do you pitch a fresh culture with every new batch of beer? 

[roffenburger]

I'll have to try using tape myself. Never thought of it. Did you have to stain the mold?

Here is something I'm seeing quite often in my beers:



My first thought was that this is bacteria but it seems a bit long and for that and the beer tastes clean. Maybe crystals of sorts.

Kai

It seems that this discussion has died, but I'll send my thoughts on this object. Not bacteria.

Is it possible that this is something on the coverslip? Its hard to tell what plane you are focused on, but I see out of focus objects in the background, indicating that this is on a different focus plane. I may be way off, but if its something you see consistently i was thinking it was your cover slip, or whatever you're using. Can you move it in the liquid?

[dimik]

Those rods remind me of looking at micro-crystals under microscope.
Also, you don't need to say rod bacillus, because bacilli are defined by having a rod shape.

[1vertical]

Also, you don't need to say rod bacillus, because bacilli are defined by having a rod shape.

I post this to illustrate my thinking, not to pose an argument, but this is why I said "rod bacteria"
I am far far from any type of microbiologist.

Uh ....spirochetes(sp) are bacteria...not rod shaped

[dimik]

No, I didn't mean to put anyone down or anything.
Bacteria are divided into 3 major groups by shape:
Round are called coccus or cocci.
Rods are called bacillus or bacilli.
And spiral shaped bacteria, that, in turn, divide into three separate categories.