BeerDeCoded: the open beer metagenome project

What is it about?

BeerDeCoded is a pretext to discuss the societal issues related to genomic and metagenomic data with fellow citizens, while advancing scientific knowledge of the most popular beverage of all, namely beer. In the spirit of citizen science, sample collection and DNA extraction were carried out with the participation of non-scientists in the community laboratory of Hackuarium, a not-for-profit organisation that supports unconventional research and promotes the public understanding of science.

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Why is it important?

A preliminary analysis reveals the presence of a large diversity of wild yeast species in commercial brews. With this project, we demonstrate that coupling simple laboratory procedures that can be carried out in a non-professional environment, with state-of-the-art sequencing technologies and targeted metagenomic analyses, can lead to the detection and identification of the microbial content in bottled beer.

Perspectives