Contamination levels of selected processed and locally made brews by Lactobacillus brev

Abstract

Beer is an alcoholic drink made from yeast-fermented malt flavoured with hops (Christian, 2017). Beer is produced by a controlled extraction and fermentation of wort i.e. a liquid rich in sugars, nitrogenous compound and trace elements, extracted from malted barley. The major raw material for brewing include: malt, hops, water, yeast, maize, sorghum, cassava among others. Generally, beer is regarded as being safe in terms of food-borne illness. This is due to the belief that pathogens aren’t able to grow in beer (Storgårds,2000). The biological stability of most modern brewery products is quite good, with best before dates ranging from six to twelve months depending on ingredients used to produce a particular beer brand (Park,1999). A number of microorganisms have been reported to be beer spoilage microorganisms. These include both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as so-called wild yeasts.