Moisture analysers combine a drying device and balance,
allowing to dry samples to constant weight while
obtaining real-time weight information. ASTM (Anonymous
1996) lists a moisture analyser method for the
determination of total solids in plant biomass. However,
a thorough literature study did not reveal any scientific
validation of the utilisation of a moisture analyser for the
determination of microbial biomass by dry weight. This
work presents such a method and its application to the
analysis of yeast and bacterial cultures and critically evaluates
method accuracy and precision.