Biologist brews Berlin’s best beer

Cristal Peck grew up in Gippsland, a region of Australia renowned for its milk, brown coal and giant earthworms. After studying biology in Melbourne she worked in research and teaching until it occurred to her that it was time for an overseas adventure.

Cristal moved to Berlin, started work as a biologist at MDC and recently won first prize for her homebrew at Berlin Beer Week. The winning beer, named ​‘Framboise Fantastic’, was a Belgian-style fruit beer with raspberries.

Cristal at Berlin Beer Week Competition Stand in June 2015. Photograph: Cristal Peck 

In a beer culture so strongly influenced by the Reinheitsgebot – the German beer purity rule that ensures beer contains only hops, malt, yeast and water – a bright pink raspberry beer is somewhat controversial among traditional brewers. But Cristal’s homebrew won the hearts of the crowd at Berlin Beer Festival and won Cristal the chance to brew 1000 L at Brauhaus Lemke.

After a stressful few weeks of brewing, including an urgent yeast order that arrived on the morning of the brew day, 1000 L of Cristal’s Raspberry Blonde, containing some 50 kg of raspberries, was ready to launch.

“I was really touched by how many of my MDC colleagues came to the launch party for my beer,” says Cristal. ​“I felt a bit coy sending out an all-staff email, but the response was overwhelming and a huge number of the MDC Friday drinks crowd came to support me.”

The beer was a hit, with three kegs consumed at the launch party alone. Cristal’s Raspberry Blonde was also sold at 15 craft beer bars across Berlin, but if you’re hoping to taste some, the bad news is that it’s already sold out.

“One of the best things about teaching people about brewing is that you can throw in some biology,” says Cristal, launching into an explanation of the science behind her standard brew day. On the brew day Cristal starts by ​‘mashing in’, a process which activates enzymes that break down long-chain starch molecules into short sugars before initiating the fermentation which continues over several days, sometimes weeks.

Barley is a seed filled with carbohydrates which provide energy for the baby plant to sprout until it reaches the sun and starts its own photosynthesis. When the seed germinates, an enzyme called amylase breaks down these carbohydrates into sugars – short disaccharides – which feed the seedling. When you malt barley to make beer it’s exactly these amylases that release the sugars from the grain.

Checking on the fermentation as Cristal adds her 50 kg of raspberries to the beer. Photograph: Cristal Peck 

The resulting sugary water, known as wort, is then fermented with yeast which converts the sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Cristal measures the sugar levels to find the optimal time to bottle the beer. The fermentation continues for a while after the beer is bottled, trapping CO₂ to form the bubbles.

“I have occasionally brought samples of my homebrew into the lab to test the sugar content,” Cristal admits. Yeast and sugar also have a role in her normal lab work at MDC, when she prepares food for the fruit flies. ​“Some days I just cook and clean for the flies, but my primary role in the science is to microinject fruit fly embryos under the microscope for various studies.”

Cristal works in Robert Zinzen’s lab, where the focus of research is understanding the fruit fly’s central nervous system and how it develops. Cristal injects DNA into fruit fly embryos, introducing genes that encode proteins called transcription factors. Transcription factors are the proteins that tell cells which genes to use, which ultimately controls how the nervous system develops.

Between fruit fly research, learning German and advising Berliner homebrewers on how to get started, Cristal is pretty busy. Her feeling that Berlin would resonate with her is proving to be true. So what does she miss about Australia? Other than her family, her dog and her ducks, vegemite of course! It’s a thick, black, salty spread best enjoyed smeared on buttered toast.

Vegemite is a yeast spread, created from the by-products of brewing beer. But could it be a beer ingredient itself? Cristal has been experimenting with a vegemite stout inspired by her favourite oyster stout, where the oysters bring a salty flavour to the beer.

“Vegemite also has a rich salty flavour, so I thought, why not? But it’s not marketable, at least not yet,” Cristal reports. While we wait to taste her vegemite stout, we can only follow Cristal’s photos on Instagram and wait to see what Berlin Beer Week 2016 might bring.

Featured Image: Brew day at Brauhaus Lemke. Photo: Cristal Peck