ACTIVITIES
Below you can find some of the wonderful experiences and activities we turned our focus to for the entirety of our project. The project itself is a living organism, so we are continuously adding to the roster. Be sure to check back for more useful information.
- Training practical course in Belgium with the focus on yeasts found in nature
- Practical brew in Romania, a collaboration of the two breweries in which the brewers use Belgian yeast and wooden barrels
- Training learning course in Romania for a target group
- Internship of young aspirants from the target group at Oriel brewery
1. Training practical course in Belgium with the focus on yeasts found in nature
At the debut of the project, in June 2022, the brewers of Oriel, Laurentiu and Ioana, went to Belgium, in the city of Oudenaarde in a training course dedicated to yeast.
Together with Sam, the brewer of HopSaSam, they started their journey in searching for wild yeast in the areas of Schelde river, a famous area for the breweries specialized in spontaneous fermentation.
Harvesting yeast is not that easy, because the environment needs to be analyzed and there are specific methods of catching yeast. With the know-how of the Belgian brewer, the team started their course with an actual brewing of a dark wort made of water, barley malts and hops, basically a perfect environment full of sugars that can capture the wild yeasts from nature, eager to eat some sugars.
Yeast is the one that transforms the wort into beer. During fermentation, yeast consume wort sugars and give off alcohol, carbon dioxide, and a range of flavors that we associate with beer.
Test brewing for harvesting wild yeasts
The liquid wort made by the brewers was poured into six small fermentation tanks that were covered with a gauze cloth, that was meant to prevent entering insects or leaves, but perfect for the wild microorganisms of yeast found in nature, to enter.
After a survey in the area surrounding the river, Sam chose the perfect spots to place the fermentation tanks overnight to catch the wild yeasts in the area.
The places were selected based on the flora of the environment: the brewery’s garden, a house tree at a medium height, the roof of the brewery, in the forest, in the public garden of the village and in a beehive of the most famous beekeeper of Belgium.
After 24 hours left in the nature, the fermentation tanks were brought back to the brewery in the fermentation room and after setting the controlled fermentation temperature, the magic began. Being an experimental project, the fermentation of each individual tank was observed and after the valve on the top cover started to release carbon dioxide, the brewers could know if is actually fermentation happening and proper yeast inside.
The fermentation with wild yeasts takes longer than the fermentation with regular brewer’s yeast, so Sam had to carefully observe the activity in each tank and make measurements.
Harvesting wild yeasts in Oudenaarde near Schelde river
Back to the training of the brewers of Oriel, they had the chance to visit one of the oldest breweries in Oudenaarde, specialized in open fermentation with wild yeasts, the brewery of Liefmans, in a tour organized for them in an exchange of experience as a part of the Ascomycota’s project. They were shown all the stages of oud bruin beer production, from ingredients, wild yeasts, and maturation in wooden barrels, but at a large scale.
At the end of their training course, the Romanians also had the chance to attend a local beer festival, where they met Koen Van Lancke, biochemist, control quality specialist, co-founder, and brewer at Brouwerij t’Verzet, a brewery also specialized in oud bruin beers and wooden barrels maturation and had the opportunity to learn more about Belgian beers, local ingredients, and the culture of the area.
Meanwhile the six fermentation tanks started their activity and Sam was left in charge with the observation of the process, measurements of the density and tasting the actual brews to check which is the best to select for the laboratory analysis, isolation, and multiplication at a larger scale, so it can be used at the actual brew in Romania.
Visit to Liefmans brewery and Brouwers In ‘t Bos
2. Practical brew in Romania, a collaboration of the two breweries in which the brewers use the Belgian wild yeast harvested previously and wooden barrels
Following the first step of harvesting wild yeast, the Belgian brewer of HopSaSam was left in charge to keep under observation the six fermentation tanks, make the necessary measurements and choose which of the harvested strains go to the laboratory for analysis and propagation. After three weeks in which measurements were made and selection has been done, the wort with the best flavours was sent to the laboratory of KU Leuven University in Belgium to make the isolation of the good strains and the propagation of the yeast that could be used for the brewing of the beers back to Romania. After the laboratory isolation and propagation, the yeast was packed and 21.5 kg of yeast, stored at 1.5 Celsius degrees was sent to Bucharest using express cool shipping to arrive safely and ready to be used.
Meanwhile, an original oud bruin recipe was created to be brewed at the Oriel brewery in Bucharest, Romania, with the harvested yeast in the middle of September.
The Belgian brewer, Sam arrived to Romania together with Koen Van Lancker, biochemist, quality control specialist, brewer and co-founder at Brouwerij t’Verzet, a well-known Belgian brewery specialized in oud bruin style beers (a red-brownish style of beer due to the use of caramel malts fermented with a mix of bacteria and yeast strains, aged in wooden barrels).
The barley malts were milled, and everything was prepared in advance by Oriel team, Laurentiu and Ioana, for the brewing day. The day started with a brewery tour for the Belgian team, while the malts were settled for mashing in the brewing kettle. It was a long day in which experience was shared and the Romanian brewers learned from the Belgian specialists, insights regarding the style of Flemish red / oud bruin style and other useful information regarding brewing Belgian style beers. The Belgian team could taste the beers made by the Oriel brewers and could give a more than useful feedback regarding the Belgian beer styles brewed in Romania.
At the end of the brew and cooling, the propagated wild yeast was added, and patience was needed to see the actual fermentation starting.
The spent grains were collected by a local artisanal bakery from Bucharest, Grain Trip, that is using them for making bread, Oriel brewery participating in this way at a circular economy.
The next days after the brewing, slowly, the fermentation started, and the brewers of Oriel could take notice of the evolution of fermentation taking samples and making measurements to determine when the time is to transfer the beer into the wooden barrels for maturation.
After the primary fermentation, the beer was transferred from the tank into the barrels and moved in the cellar to continue the maturation process much needed in this beer style. There is no fixed period of maturation in this beer style, the Oriel brewers will observe the evolution of the taste and most likely, in the middle of year 2023, the innovative beers were be launched simultaneously in Romania and Belgium.
3. Training learning course in Romania for a target group
During the summer, through this website commissioned by Oriel Beer, especially created for the Ascomycota project, those interested among which homebrewers or other young professional brewers could apply to an Associated, extensive practical training course in which they could learn about the production of Belgian style beer and microbiology of yeast, at the Oriel brewery, this kind of course being the first of its kind in Romania.
Those who submitted their applications needed to fill out a form with questions regarding brewing and the reason they wanted to attend the course. Based on their evaluation, 20 applicants were selected from Bucharest, Braila, Cluj and Chisinau to attend the course. The applicants were chosen from different categories, some of them were homebrewers, some already employed as professional brewers, some came from complementary fields related to fermentation.
The course was presented by Sam, the brewer of HopSaSam and the Belgian biochemist, Koen Van Lancker. The participants had the chance to learn about the history of a specific area in Belgium, the Belgian beer of a certain style and different types of yeast or bacteria that are encountered in different beers, through a tasting in which they were presented different Belgian beers which cannot be found in Romania.
At the end of the course, the participants received Certificates of participation and they had the opportunity to ask questions and receive precious information from the Belgian specialists. They also visited the Oriel brewery in a private tour and for some of them was the first time they entered in a brewery.
4. Internship of young aspirants from the target group at Oriel brewery
After the course, the participants needed to fill again forms with their feedback and they needed to answer questions that could measure the information they learned during the presentation and the reason why they wanted to attend the internship.
Their forms were evaluated, and the brewers of Oriel selected five applicants for the internship. Starting October, the month following the course, each participant could attend for one month all the stages that take place in the beer production process, from milling, brewing, bottling, labeling, sealing with wax up to the organizational stages.
Through this internship, the selected ones, had the chance, for the first time in their life to see and learn about brewing craft beer at a bigger scale in a professional brewery.
The selected ones were: Carina-Mihaela Micu, Costin Geamanu, Florin Diaconu, Andrei Marin and Bogdan Pencea.
