If you’ve ever had a red wine that smelled “off,” like gym socks, Band-Aids, or farmyards, then you’ve likely encountered a wine affected by Brettanomyces bruxellensis(“Brett” for short)—a barrel-dwelling spoilage yeast that can taint the…
Student Combines Temperature and Sulfur Dioxide to Control Brett in Wine Sulfur dioxide is one of the winemaker’s most familiar tools, helping control spoilage yeasts such as Brettanomyces and Zygosaccharomyces. When Brettanomyces, unaffectionately known as “Brett” among enologists, crosses a critical threshold, it imparts undesirable odors and flavors. Affected wines may have a spectrum of […]
Young Scientist Seeks to Soothe Frets about Brett Every time you take a breath, you inhale fungi and fungal spores. In every cubic meter of air there are thousands of spores released by hundreds of species of fungi, according to a study conducted by scientists at the Max Planck Institute. We like to say that […]
PROSSER, Wash. — Washington State University now features the largest experimental, non-commercial winemaking facility in the Pacific Northwest. The research winery, which is located at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, has a production capacity of about 5,000 gallons. The new facility was designed by enologists James Harbertson and Kerry Ringer, […]