More and more independent brewers are getting into lager brewing, but plenty of misinformation still exists. We asked Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson to help us dispel five common myths.
Hermit Thrush Brewery in Brattleboro, Vt., Christophe Gagné showcases local microorganisms by nurturing house cultures of wild yeast and bacteria and embracing spontaneous fermentation.
Known for its eclectic dining, music, and arts scene, Athens, Ga., gained its third brewery in May 2015 when Brian Roth opened The Southern Brewing Company to brew beer that “tastes like Athens.”
Rapid growth and continued innovation in the beer industry have made it a professional pipeline for women in STEM careers, from researching yeast genomes to studying the science of taste.
The remote Estonian islands, an hours-long journey from the capital of Tallinn, have preserved many of the country’s cultural traditions, including brewing the rustic farmhouse ale Koduõlu.
Scientists publish family tree of brewers’ yeast; Nebraska banishes homebrew from beer festivals; London borough gives pubs legal protection; and Maryland breweries collaborate on beer benefiting flood victims.
To create more consistent wild beers and better understand fermentation, brewers are teaming up with scientists. The future of sour beer has never looked better.
Curious how Saccharomyces pastorianus (lager yeast) came into being, microbiologist Duccio Cavalieri and entomologist Stefano Turrillazzi had a hunch that the fungi were getting some matchmaking help from wasps.
Wild Beer’s careful, considered way of doing things—harvesting native yeasts, implementing uncommon ingredients, blending, aging, experimenting—makes this remote operation one of the most forward-thinking craft breweries England has ever seen.
What’s wrong with unfiltered beer? Nothing, traditionally speaking. Grains like oats and wheat, which brewers have used for hundreds of years, are known for rendering cloudy beer. But when it’s a hazy American IPA, people start arguing.
Beer has long been associated as a gout trigger due to its relatively high levels of purine, an organic compound that, among other functions, helps form the base of human DNA. Beer gets the bulk of its purine content from brewer’s yeast, which has about three times the purines as baker’s yeast.
In ye olden days, the drying process consistently contaminated yeast with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. This was considered a very bad thing. With modern processing improvements, it’s not the case anymore, hence the explosion of dried yeast choices.
Common ale yeast actually possesses resistant cell walls that makes it difficult to digest. New research now suggests that the principal reason our bodies are able to derive nutrients from yeast is with help from friendly bacteria that resides almost exclusively in our gut.
In 2007, when BeerAdvocate became the country’s first monthly beer magazine, the combined output of 1,406 craft breweries represented less than four percent of the total market in the US.
Trevor Brown is part of a rapidly expanding group of brewers redefining Texas beer. His brewery, The Lone Pint, has turned Magnolia, a tiny town an hour outside Houston, into a destination for brawny, hoppy ales.
Formerly a microbiologist at Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis, East Coast Yeast’s Al Buck got into beer the same way many homebrewers do: with a kit.
This massively honeyed beer was inspired by the intensely spicy flavors of tupelo honey. The idea was to build a big wheat beer that smelled like a clovey Hefeweizen.
The idea of marrying sake and beer has been around for a while, but a hybrid has never been made in any great quantity. One of the issues is that many brewers, in spite of their creativity, do not have experience with sake.
Presentation is part of the experience of enjoying beer and an influencer for consumers. It’s the eye candy that teases the other senses and sets expectations. It’s the all-important first impression. So why are a growing number of brewers releasing beers that frankly look like shit?
At The Rare Barrel, a tiny, sours-only brewery in Berkeley, Calif., American sours push the boundaries of what Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pedioccocus, oak and time can do.
Trader Joe’s house brand changes breweries, branding; Mikkeller and Three Floyds to open Copenhagen brewpub; researchers creating genetic family tree for brewing yeast; and The Bruery to open a facility for wild-fermented ales.
With the recent boom in wild ales and sour beers, yeast is having a serious moment in the spotlight. But more experimentation means breweries risk exposure to cross-contamination and infection. That’s why Avery Brewing Co. teamed up with the University of Colorado to genetically sequence yeast strains.
Most of our hobby’s engineers and sciencey types futz over sculptures and process controls. But biology nerds? They get yeast obsessed. The truly crazy are expanding commercial frontiers with hyper-local yeast companies. San Francisco’s The Yeast Bay is one of the newest.
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