The importance of yeast counts in brewing beer and making
wine
Yeast is one of the most important ingredients for fermentation-based alcohols such
as wine, beer and Sake. There are several steps in the overall process where yeast
levels are critical, specifically during the fermentation, pitching, re-pitching and
bottle conditioning (bright tanks). The yeast convert grain sugar into three key
elements for setting the quality of beer and wine; alcohol, carbon dioxide and byproducts which impact taste. As such wineries and breweries could establish a
competitive advantage by accurately monitoring yeast throughout the fermentation
process.
Below is summary of key reasons for monitoring yeast in the brewing process
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Harvesting yeast: You need to know the number of yeast-cells/ml in yeast
harvest in order to determine what volume of yeast to add to a tank for
optimal fermentation
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Fermentation: It is important to monitor the yeast concentration throughout
the fermentation to acquire growth curves for specific yeast strains, the
shape of these curves can distinguish specific beer types (Duvel from and
IPA)
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Bottle conditioning: A highly accurate yeast count is needed to pitch exactly
enough yeast into the clarified beer along with the appropriate amount of
sugar to achieve the desired increase in CO2 in the package.
High Level Bottle Conditioning Process & Importance of Accurate
Yeast Count
 Filter the beer to get out the vast majority of the yeast left over from the
fermentation so that final yeast concentration in filtered beer can be
controlled
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Add back in the amount of fresh, healthy yeast and sugar that will yield your
target CO2
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Verify your bright tank cell count concentration is within specifications, the
Moxi Z yeast counter is ideal for this step
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Package beer immediately, verify cell count in the bottle, and monitor the
CO2 increase over the bottle conditioning process to ensure CO2 reaches
specification for release.
Lastly with the explosion of growth in the craft micro brewing industry, having the
ability to rapidly monitor yeast and experiment with the ramping, tweaking of yeast
levels could lead to a significant competitive advantage. Larger breweries
understand how this can help with quality and with the establishment of
differentiated new brews; like IPA’s, Browns, Belgian Ales, Duvel Ales, Pale Ales, etc,
and invest heavily in yeast monitoring equipment.
Now any size brewery can access this capability through the Moxi Z cell counter due
its affordability (List Price of $3,495). The Moxi Z is an impedance based flow
cytometer, and as such, delivers the highest accuracy and precision yeast counts of
any instrument on the market, when compared to the Gold Standard Z2 Coulter
counter.
The Moxi Z is an ideal tool for monitoring yeast for breweries and wineries:
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It is small, fits in the palm of your hand
Very easy to use, requires little to no training
Rapid test time, 8 seconds, with minimal sample prep (simple dilution)
Utilizes a disposable cassette, eliminating the need for cleaning &
maintenance
Affordable, $3,495
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We have tested several different wine yeasts and a very common brewers yeast
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and three common yeasts for making wine. Click on the
links below for a detailed overview our test results demonstrating performance on
par with $30,000 instrumentation. We do have Moxi Z’s placed at highly respected
breweries as well.
 Brewers yeast, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae
 Natural Fermentation Yeast
 Vin 13 Yeast Cell Line –Muscat Grape
 X5 Yeast Cell Line – Sauvignon Blanc