Lactic acid bacteria, Pediococcus, and diastatic wild yeast can silently compromise batch after batch. LAB produce off-flavors, acidity, and haze that cannot be reversed. Diastatic S. cerevisiae is worse: it looks identical to normal brewing yeast, hides on standard plates, and can lurk in your process for weeks before causing over-attenuated beer, gushing cans, and safety hazards. Once it surfaces, tracking it down is notoriously difficult.
Most breweries know these risks but few test consistently. Plating takes up to two weeks. Third-party send-outs cost $99+ per sample with multi-day turnaround. At those prices and timelines, routine testing is out of reach for most operations.
Catches the organisms behind off-flavors, diacetyl, acidity, ropiness, and haze before they ruin a batch. SENTRI screens for 28 beer spoilage species across 13 genera, including Levilactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus damnosus, and obligate spoilers like Megasphaera and Pectinatus.
Not all LAB can survive in beer. SENTRI screens for the HorA, HorC, and HitA genes that allow bacteria to tolerate hop-derived antimicrobials. A positive result means the organism is a genuine threat to your packaged product. A negative means it likely won't persist.
Diastatic S. cerevisiae is nearly impossible to identify with conventional methods. SENTRI detects the STA1 gene directly, validated against an inclusivity panel of 19 confirmed diastatic strains. Molecular detection is the only reliable way to find it.
Grab a sample from your fermenter, bright tank, packaging line, or anywhere in your process you want to monitor.
Transfer your sample to the included enrichment media. This step amplifies any spoilage organisms present so they can be reliably detected.
Use the included kit to prepare your enriched sample for testing. Guided steps, no special equipment, minimal hands-on time.
Add your prepped sample to the SENTRI reaction tube, place it in the device, and press start. Results are delivered to the screen when the run is complete.
The SENTRI Spoilage Panel screens for the organisms and genetic markers that matter most to brewers, organized into three detection categories.
At $99+ per sample from a third-party lab, most breweries only test when something has already gone wrong. SENTRI brings per-sample costs down dramatically, making routine, proactive monitoring practical for the first time.
