US government shutdown hindered craft beer industry growth; rare disorder turns man’s stomach into a brewery; civet coffee controversy spurs brewers to reevaluate the ingredient; after lawsuit dismissal, tribe repeals prohibition; and Whole Foods to open first in-store brewery.
Who thought spontaneous fermentation was unique to Belgium? It wasn’t, and lasted well into the 19th century in other parts of Europe. I’m not talking about Gose or another sour wheat style, but about one of the strangest beers brewed in recent times: Danziger Joppenbier.
As the founding brewmaster of Full Sail Brewing, and the founder and longtime head of Wyeast Laboratories, David Logsdon carries a huge footprint in the craft industry, especially in the Pacific Northwest. But he made a conscious effort to keep his latest venture, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, at a modest scale.
In their quest to push the boundaries of brewing and redefine craft beer styles, American brewers are deep into experimenting with brewing’s most fickle ingredient: wild yeast. And as demand for Brett and other wild strains skyrockets, lab geeks like Dmitri Serjanov are stepping up to meet it.
I first encountered Saison around 1997 at my local brewpub, and I’ve been deeply obsessed ever since. There isn’t nearly enough space in this column for all my thoughts on the style, but hopefully these notes on my brewing process will help make those notorious yeast strains work for you.
Over the last few years, there have been rumblings that olive oil can be added to beer instead of oxygen. Like milk fortifying our bones, yeast need oxygen to build strong cell walls. The idea is that olive oil contains oleic acid, an unsaturated fatty acid that could be enough to promote yeast growth.
A group of young scientists in Germany have managed to brew a beer with added flavors that doesn’t break the Reinheitsgebot, the 1516 purity law. By tinkering with the genes in yeast, students at the Technical University of Munich have engineered the microorganisms to impart additional flavors and substances to their beers, like lemon and caffeine.
While walking in the woods, Argentinian microbiologist Diego Libkind stumbled upon fungus clusters scattered on the ground. Taking a sample back to the lab, Libkind found a species of Saccharomyces yeast living on these edible mushrooms.
Westvleteren Trappist Ales to make US debut in 2012; scientists decipher genetic code of Brettanomyces yeast; SABMiller purchases Foster’s Group; House Bill 4061 legalizes homebrew sharing at Michigan meetings; and Prohibition Pig to open in place of The Alchemist Brewpub.
Genesee beer sign illuminates community once more; Funkwerks brew stirs ire of indigenous New Zealanders; Massachusetts ABCC withdraws troublesome farmer-brewer decision; and lager’s missing link discovered in Patagonia.
Allagash’s Rob Tod recalls visiting spontaneous Belgian breweries with a group of American brewers, and wondering whether their techniques could be imported to the US.
At times of rapid change, people crave rules. For many British beer drinkers, it is a definition of good beer devised in innocence a few decades ago, when we worshipped yeast.
When you boil it all down, beer is little more than four simple ingredients—malt, hops, water and yeast. Join us as we close our two-part series on taking it all back to basics.
Primarily used by bakers, active dry yeast (ADY) has been available to brewers for years. Professional brewers, even the tiniest, thriftiest of craft brewers, usually don’t touch the stuff. Until now.
When Sierra Nevada heard about the E-Fuel100 MicroFueler, they contacted the inventors to see if there was a way they could use the gizmos to make ethanol on site at the brewery for use with their vehicle fleet.
Resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, has been proven to reduce heart disease and curb some cancers in lab animals, which makes red wine the darling of healthy-minded drinkers. But a group of students at Rice University might be knocking red wine off its lofty pedestal.
Why is Arcadia Brewing Company growing rapidly and gaining fans far outside its Michigan home base? For one, its head brewer, Josh Davies, goes to work at 3:30 in the morning to make sure his yeast is happy.
A pair of geneticists at the Stanford University School of Medicine believe that they have uncovered the answer to the classic “which came first” question—not about chickens and eggs, but about ales and lagers.
Ancient yeast that was found encased and preserved in a piece of amber was extracted by a team of scientists, cultivated and then used to ferment beer.
