Measurement of yeast vitality using a modified version of the intracellular pH measurement (ICP)

Abstract

The measurement of the intracellular pH using the ICP-Method has proofed to be sensitive and reliable indicator of the physiological condition of yeast. This method has the drawbacks that uncommon equipment (spectrofluorophotometer) is necessary and that even under optimal condition the analysis takes 3.5 hours and is very labour intensive. Especially this time consuming characteristic makes this analysis extremely unattractive for a routine use in a brewery laboratory. To overcome this drawback an alternative sample preparation was developed which shortens the time for this method to approximately half an hour. The results of this Short ICP method (S-ICP) demonstrate a very good correlation with the original method. The requirement of a spectrofluorophotometer still persists.