Leandro Meiners
Special guest
Leandro Meiners, started off his professional life as an IT Security Consultant and continued this path for over fifteen years. After being bitten by the homebrewing bug, he ended up dropping his former career and did an MSc. in Brewing & Distilling at Heriot-Watt (Scotland). Having gained practical experience working at two breweries in France, he returned to his homeland, Argentina, to start his own brewery with Taproom called PLACEBO (@placebo.brewing). Leandro also has a blog, in Spanish, about brewing science called Zythologia and he is the co-host of Birratecnia a podcast, in Spanish, focused on sharing academic research and putting it into context of the day to day brewing activities.
Leandro Meiners has been a guest on 2 episodes.
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Episode 231: The Black Box of Biotransformation
November 22nd, 2021 | 44 mins 44 secs
Why does dry-hopping during active fermentation change sensory profiles? Is the black box of biotransformation really what drives those changes or is it something else entirely?
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Episode 173: Using Exogenous Enzymes to Boost Biotransformation
June 8th, 2020 | 35 mins 45 secs
Biotransformation has become a buzzword in the brewing community, with many brewers even performing dry hopping at certain specific times to hit what is considered to be the “biotransformation sweet spot.” Academic literature does not support these claims. With the aid of enzymes developed for the wine industry, two experimental IPA beers were brewed: one with an enzyme preparation aimed at hydrolyzing glycosides and the other with a β-lyase preparation aimed at releasing bound thiols. Triangle tests for each treatment were carried out by a panel of over 25 participants, composed of brewers and judges, and showed that both beers were significantly different from the control, yet preference was overwhelmingly toward the no-enzyme IPA control beer. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis carried out by the same panel showed a clear trend toward both enzyme beers being less tropical/fruity and more herbal and/or citrusy, the exact opposite of the purported benefit of biotransformation.