The Escarpment Labs Podcast

Are your yeast nutrients giving your fermentation precision support, or are they overloading your kettle with heavy metals and unpredictable mineral shifts?
Many commercial worts are naturally deficient in zinc (<0.15 ppm), leading to sluggish fermentations and yeast stress. However, many off-the-shelf nutrients were originally formulated for wine or distilling rather than beer—sometimes adding massive doses of calcium or unwanted pro-oxidant metals like iron and copper.
In this episode, Mark and Richard open up the laboratory vault to share findings from a multi-brewery study evaluating 47 samples across 16 commercial craft breweries.
We break down:
Precision Zinc Delivery: How Yeast Lightning reliably lifts zinc deficient worts (+0.125 ppm avg. increase) straight into the ideal 0.2-0.3 ppm sweet spot.

Heavy Metals & Shelf Life: How excess iron (>0.15 ppm) in competing nutrients triggers Fenton reactions, driving premature lipid oxidation and cardboard off-flavours in packaged beer.

Electrolyte & FAN Balance: Delivering vital cofactors like potassium and magnesium without triggering drastic, unwanted water chemistry shifts or lowering free amino nitrogen.

The Future of Precision Nutrition: Where yeast nutrition research is heading next—from amino acid profiling to custom wort management.

Featured in this Episode:
Check out our newest blog, "What's In Your Nutrient? What 16 Breweries Taught Us About Wort Nutrition".
⚡ Need bulk nutrition in the brewhouse? We’re excited to introduce the new 20kg bulk size for ⁠Yeast Lightning⁠! It’s the perfect option for larger production facilities or breweries looking to unlock a major bulk discount on their essential yeast nutrition.

Why do yeast pitch rates vary so drastically between brewing shifts, even when everyone is using the same hemocytometer?
Manual microscopic cell counts are standard practice, but they take time, carry operator bias, and can fall short when slurry densities change across strains. If you've ever faced stalled fermentations or batch-to-batch flavour shifts, inconsistent pitching volume might be the hidden culprit.
In this episode, Mark and Richard are joined by Nick Brown (Brewing Sales Specialist at Aber Instruments) and Matt Cummings (Brewmaster at Equals Brewing) to explore capacitance technology — a real-time method for measuring viable yeast biomass directly in the line or tank.
We cover:
The Limits of the Scope: Where manual cell counts, slurry weight, and optical density fall short in a fast-paced production cellar.

The Science of Cell Capacitance: How live yeast cells with intact membranes act like tiny rechargeable batteries under a radio-frequency field, and why trub, dead cells, and hop debris are completely ignored.

Real-World Production at Equals Brewing: How switching from manual sampling to automated, real-time dosing saved labour and tightened fermentation timelines.

SOPs for Success: Best practices for multi-strain handling, sensor calibration, and proactive yeast health monitoring.

Featured in this Episode:
Aber Instruments — Including products for cell counting, pitching, and cropping.

For a more manual approach, check out our FREE Cell Counting Guide.

To download our comprehensive Yeast Management & Repitching Guide, click here.

Why does a beer taste squeaky clean at final gravity, only to turn into a slick, buttery mess three weeks after it hits the can?
Diacetyl and its sneaky, odourless precursor (alpha-acetolactate) remain every brewer’s absolute worst quality control nightmare—especially during peak production season when cellar turns are tight. While dropping ALDC enzyme into the fermenter has become standard practice, relying on it as a silver bullet without fixing underlying yeast nutrition can leave your beer vulnerable to hop creep and post-packaging spikes.
In this episode, Mark and Richard break down the complete cellular biochemistry of diacetyl prevention, ALDC limitations, and cellar-tested QC checks.
We explore:
The Precursor Trap: How alpha-acetolactate hides in clean-tasting beer and oxidizes into buttery diacetyl after packaging.

Yeast Nutrition as Defence: Why Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN), zinc, and magnesium suppress precursor formation at the source.

The Limits of ALDC: How hop creep, bacterial spoilers, and low pH can overwhelm your enzyme insurance policy.

The Forced Diacetyl Test: A step-by-step walkthrough for executing a foolproof heat-forced sensory test—and why boiling your sample creates dangerous false negatives!

Featured in this Episode:
Learn more about ALDC from Escarpment Labs here.
For more information about Diacetyl, you can check out our blog posts "The Forced Diacetyl Test" & "5 Off Flavours Caused by Beer Yeast (And How to Prevent Them)", and our Knowledge Base "Troubleshooting Diacetyl in Beer".

Why do some bottle-conditioned beers carbonate perfectly in two weeks, while others stall out, develop mousy off-flavours, or turn into dangerous bottle bombs?
Relying on exhausted or stressed primary yeast after a high-gravity or low-pH fermentation is a gamble. In this episode, Mark and Richard break down the cellular science and step-by-step protocols behind reliable bottle conditioning. Moving past simple sugar additions, they explore how living yeast acts as a powerful antioxidant engine that protects beer from oxygen and cleans up lingering off-flavours.
In this episode, we cover:
Re-Yeasting Strains & Myths: Why Champagne yeast (like EC-1118) won't over-attenuate your beer, and how targeting 1 x 10^6 cells/mL ensures uniform carbonation.

The Acid Shock Protocol: How to build a 48-hour acclimatization starter to condition high-ABV or low-pH (<3.5) sour beers without killing your yeast.

Natural Oxygen Scavenging: Leveraging active re-fermentation to metabolize dissolved oxygen, protect delicate hop aromas, and clean up mousy THP off-flavours.

Commercial Packaging SOPs: Priming syrup calculations, homogeneous blending, and managing warm conditioning temperatures (18-22ºC).

Featured in this Episode:
Check out our article, "Best Practices for Bottle Conditioning", on our Knowledge Base, and the packaging guides on the Milk the Funk Wiki.
Learn more about the products mentioned: Voss Kveik, Hornindal Kveik Blend, LalBrew House Ale, and LalBrew CBC-1.

What does it take to oversee the yeast, science, and flavour profile of one of the world's most recognizable lagers?
In this episode of the Escarpment Labs Podcast, Richard sits down with Willem Van Waesberghe, Global Master Brewer at Heineken. Together, they trace the profound impact Heineken has had on global lager brewing, starting with the fascinating history and genetics of the legendary Heineken A-yeast strain.
Willem also takes us behind the scenes of two groundbreaking projects: the development of H41—a unique lager brewed using Saccharomyces eubayanus, the rare mother strain of lager yeast—and the Heineken Studio, where his team experiments with innovative blending techniques and mixed fermentations.
If you’re interested in scaling a clean lager, fascinated by wild yeast genetics, or curious about how legacy brands push the boundaries of modern brewing, this conversation will bridge historic scale with cutting-edge experimentation.