Author: Brian Hall

A stuck fermentation has got to be one of the more frustrating things a brewer can experience. Whereas the typical mash process produces wort with a blend of both simple and complex sugars, a common culprit for fermentation stopping too soon is an overabundance of the latter, which brewers yeast is unable to metabolize. This results in an underattenuated beer that can be sweeter and lower in alcohol than intended, and the solutions of which are very limited. A rather curious option for brewers looking to fix such a problem involves dosing the beer with an enzyme known to break down complex sugars so that they are made more easily digestible, not just by brewers yeast, by humans as well.

Beano is a widely available supplement taken by people to help control digestive discomfort and flatulence. It does this via the enzymes alpha-galactosidase (α-GAL) and invertase that break down the complex carbohydrates of gas-producing foods, ultimately aiding in more comfortable digestion. If it works for guts, why not beer?

Using Beano as a fix for unexpectedly high FGs isn’t that new, clever brewers have been recommending it for decades, often accompanied by cautionary tales of beers that dropped to 1.000 SG or lower. More recently, unarguably inspired by the advent of the super dry Brut IPA style, interest in the use of enzymes for the purpose of driving fairly extreme degrees of attenuation has spiked. And while various products exist that purportedly accomplish this task, none are as readily available as Beano, which can be found in most corner stores.

I’ve made a few beers in my day and have never ended up with a stuck fermentation, so using enzymes is something I hadn’t really considered. Given the growing use of enzymes as a way to facilitate dryness, I decided to test it out for myself!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between two beers where one was dosed with Beano and the other is left alone.

| METHODS |

Concerned the hop character of a Brut IPA might overshadow any potential flavor and aroma impact of Beano, I went with a much lighter and less hoppy style for this xBmt.

Cuisino

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 28.5 IBUs 4.0 SRM 1.037 1.012 3.3 % Actuals 1.037 1.007 3.9 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pelton Pilsner Style Malt (Mecca Grade) 4.5 lbs 58.54 Lamonta American Style Pale Malt (Mecca Grade) 1.75 lbs 22.76 Vanora Vienna-style Malt (Mecca Grade) 1.125 lbs 14.63 Wickiup Wheat Malt (Mecca Grade) 3 oz 2.44 Victory Malt 2 oz 1.63 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Perle 10 g 60 min Boil Pellet 8 Saphir 21 g 30 min Boil Pellet 3.7 Tettnang 21 g 15 min Boil Pellet 3.5 Tettnang 30 g 10 min Boil Pellet 3.5 Notes Water Profile: Yellow Balanced in Bru’n Water Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

My first order of business on brew day was collecting the water for each batch, adjusting it to my desired profile, then using my heat stick to warm it up.

While the water was heating, I weighed out and the milled two identical sets of grain.

It took about an hour for the water to reach strike temperature, at which point I split it evenly between identical kettles. I then incorporated the grains into the water before checking to ensure both reached the same 157°F/69°C mash temperature, which I targeted in hopes of producing wort with more complex sugars.

Following a 60 minute mash rest, I removed the grains and let them drip until pre-boil volume was reached.

While the worts were heating up, I measured out the kettle hop additions.

Both batches of wort were boiled for 60 minutes with hops added per the recipe.

At the end of each boil, I quickly chilled the worts.

I then combined both worts in a single kettle and stirred to homogenize before taking a hydrometer measurement showing I hit my intended OG.

Two identical glass carboys were filled with equal volumes of wort.

At this point, I crushed 10 capsules of Beano and added it to one of the batches of wort.

Each batch of wort with pitched with a pouch of Imperial Yeast L13 Global before I put the beers away to ferment at 57°F/14°C.

After 8 days, I raised the temperature to 68°F/20°C and left it alone for another 5 days before noticing fermentation activity was absent. Hydrometer measurements at this time revealed the Beano beer had attenuated more than the batch without the Beano.

I proceeded with kegging the beers.

The filled kegs were placed in my keezer where they were carbonated. After a 5 week lager period, the beers were ready to serve.

| RESULTS |

A total of 21 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 2 samples of the beer made without Beano and 1 sample of the Beano dosed beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. At this sample size, 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, though only 7 (p=0.58) made the accurate selection, indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a pale lager beer dosed with Beano from one that was made without the enzyme.

My Impressions: Even in initial side-by-side samplings, I couldn’t tell a difference between these beers, everything about them seemed identical. Needless to say, I was unable to identify the odd-beer-out in a series of semi-blind triangle tests, despite my inherent bias due to knowing what the variable was. This was easily the lightest beer I’ve brewed, and it was very crushable, I definitely went through more than I intended during my self-assessment!

| DISCUSSION |

There are a variety products currently available that are marketed to brewers as a means to drive attenuation, all of which contain enzymes that breakdown complex sugars such that they’re more easily metabolized by brewers yeast. One such product that’s typically used after beer consumption, is the over-the-counter flatulence reducer, Beano, which has been used for years to combat stuck fermentations and reduce FG in beer. And with the growing popularity of super dry Brut IPA, Beano has experienced a bit of a resurgence in the brewing world.

Indeed, this supported the claim that Beano is able to assist in increasing attenuation, as the beer dosed with Beano finished 0.004 SG points lower than the non-dosed beer. However, as we’ve seen in previous xBmts involving differences in FG, even this difference didn’t appear to have a perceptible impact, as blind tasters were unable to reliably tell the beers apart. And even my biased palate thought they were identical in aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel, as well as appearance.

A very common and completely understandable belief among brewers is that beers with a lower FG will be perceptibly less sweet and have a thinner body than beers with a higher FG. As counterintuitive as it may be, these xBmt results provide further evidence that the complex sugars broken down by the enzymes present in Beano aren’t characterized by the sweetness of more common sugars, and their absence appears to have little if any effect on mouthfeel. The one thing we can say categorically is that the beer dosed with Beano ultimately had fewer remaining carbohydrates than its non-dosed counterpart, which may appeal to those looking to shave a few calories out of their diet.

We certainly plan to continue exploring the use of different enzymes in brewing, particularly as it applies to Brut IPA, though I’m also interested in the impact it has on beers with a very high OG. And just a quick word of caution—there’s little that can be done to counteract Beano’s effect, so make sure you’re okay with a lower FG and higher ABV before adding it to your beer.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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