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Advanced Cicerone® · Beer Flavor and Evaluation

Autolysis

Syllabus Path

Autolysis is yeast breakdown that can produce meaty, soy sauce, brothy, rubbery, sulfury, or savory notes. Diagnose autolysis by yeast-related aroma and flavor plus age, storage, and package context.

  1. III. Beer Flavor and Evaluation
  2. D. Other beer flavors
  3. 2. Autolysis

Exam Focus

  • Explain autolysis as a sensory evaluation topic within Other beer flavors.
  • Describe meaty, savory, rubbery, soy-like, or yeast-extract character cautiously and compare it with other sulfur, oxidation, and ingredient sources.
  • Connect prolonged yeast contact, cell stress, time, and temperature to autolysis risk while avoiding certainty from a single ambiguous descriptor.

Core knowledge

  • Autolysis is yeast breakdown that can produce meaty, soy sauce, brothy, rubbery, sulfury, or savory notes.
  • Risk rises with poor yeast management, long warm storage on yeast, stressed fermentation, or old bottle-conditioned beer.
  • Some sediment character can be normal, but autolysis is usually a quality fault when intense.

Study application

Diagnose autolysis by yeast-related aroma and flavor plus age, storage, and package context.

Key Terms

Some sediment character
Some sediment character can be normal, but autolysis is usually a quality fault when intense.

References

1 available