Are You Drinking GMO Beer?

I don't mind answering at all! I don't have a sense of how widespread these GMO yeasts are at the scale above us, as those large regional and national breweries don't typically like to share that kind of info officially. I can say that the thiol-producing yeasts are very popular among smaller breweries. I'd guess hundreds of breweries are actively using those strains or have tried them, enough that the yeast labs are putting lots of R&D behind them still and developing different variants.

The diacetyl-free strains are much newer but they are gaining traction, as most of us are trying to avoid diacetyl at all costs, especially in hoppy beers with big dry hop loads. IIRC the yeast is modified to produce ALDC, which de-natures the pre-cursor to diacetyl. ALDC is already available as a product and in use at many, many breweries.

Sourvisiae is pretty popular as a method to produce quick soured clean beers. It's an American ale yeast engineered to produce lactic acid as it ferments.

One of the newest strains that some people are playing with is called Sunburst, from Berkeley Labs. It's a Chico/California ale yeast engineered to produce esters that smell/taste like pineapple and tropical fruit, so that you can make clear beers with flavors typically associated with hazy/London 3 ale yeasts. I personally know of a handful of breweries that are using it or have tried it, but I think this category of GMO yeasts with different enhanced flavor profiles will grow pretty quickly.

 

I’m sending a trend here

 

Really appreciate you sharing some insights from within the industry!

This is something I've wondered about a lot. Historically these large breweries have financed the development of hop and barley varieties, which are much much larger and longer term investments. It seems like a bit of a no brainer that they would have investments in what could become proprietary yeast strains with exceptional qualities.

That is sort of what I expected, once I saw.that these types were readily available to homebrewers and that they produced the sorts of flavors that the market seems to obsess over I realized they must be fairly widespread.

I remember hearing about that one and have been wondering when I would encounter a beer marketed as having been produced with it.

And I whole heartedly agree with your thoughts that these types of yeast are on the verge of exploding. The technology is getting into a first phase of maturity and it's likely that we are less than a decade away from CRISPR being accessible for a brewery like Sierra Nevada to be able to operate their own proprietary yeast program. I expect there will be whole new labs that arise to provide nothing but modified yeasts focused on specific flavors.

It's a strange new world for sure

 

Few subjects bring out the crazy like GMO.

You can't buy real bread anymore! We need gmo crops to feed the world! Eating fish hasn't turned me into one!

 

I think almost all corn in the USA is GMO..so most beer is already. I wish it could be labelled but all attempts have been beaten back by the corporations. If you really REALLY believe your GMO crops are great then you should be proud to state it in big letters on your label.

 

While not against GMO crops/yeast in principle. The companies behind always seem so shady. Monsanto is almost diabolically nasty. Like they wanted to be so evil. They were also benind the early efforts to make terminator seeds to ensure poor farmers in the developing world HAD to go back every year for new seeds. How fucking evil is that? Yeah that idea ended pretty fast. But come on?

 

I was curious about whether malting companies handle non-GMO and GMO grains so that brewers might have a choice in what they use, if they prefer to stay away from the GMO stuff.

I didn't get very far and really didn't answer that question about whether brewers have a choice in what grain they use. I looked at the Briess Malting Company website, and it seems like they purposely stay away from GMO products. However, I did see that they offer a GMO extract product.

I also looked at a couple small maltster sites, but it seemed like they avoid the issue about what they offer because I couldn't find any reference of whether their products are GMO or not. Maybe they take the approach that silence is golden.

Are there any brewery workers reading this that know whether breweries can have much choice on using GMO or not? (Not everybody is buying their grains from Briess.)

 

There are no gmo barley, wheat, oat, or rye varieties approved for use (although I believe some experimental gmo wheat was found to have escaped trial fields in Oregon some years ago) so the only regular brewing products that might come from gmo crops would be corn or (if you were using sugar) beet sugar.

 

Thanks for that. I obviously thought this thread implied otherwise. I'll have to look at the Briess site again to see what that GMO malt extract product might be.

Edit: I see now that the focus of this thread started with the yeast.

 

I'm not familiar with malt extracts but if there are varieties that use gmo inputs then I would guess there's corn sugar added to them

 

I looked up that GMO extract product again. In a list of their products it is listed as GMO, but when looking at the product's description it is listed as non-GMO and says it is for gluten-free beer usage. And I think they're talking about sorghum, although they aren't very clear on that.

So there's an apparent error (inconsistency) between a product list and the specs for that product, so I'll withdraw my statement in that earlier post that Briess offers a GMO extract product.

 

That escaped wheat almost cost many Oregon farmers their livelihood as Japan and other eastern Asian countries refused to take their usual shipments. It was a big friggin deal. There are some conspiracy theories about why it happened.

 

There may not be any GMO barley, wheat, oat or rye varieties approved, but how much pesticides are used on them.

 

I've used GMO yeast in homebrews. Didn't die. IMHO, GMOs are a way to speed up the process of selective breeding that has been going on since man first domesticated animals, grain, vegetables, and fruits, and are harmless.

 

A very well respected (in the culinary world, anyhow) specialty farmer once posited the question "Does organic manure solely come from cattle that would be rated organic for beef or milk?"

 

Don’t get me wrong. I have had my share of them. I do try to be organic as much as possible though.

 

I suppose that depends on the farmer, region, and growing season. But probably a bit more than zero

 

At the restaurant supply store I work at, we have popcorn that has a disclaimer that says that any use beyond using as popcorn, especially research, will be considered in violation of it's patent and subject to litigation.

 

I do not agree. with the comparison of selective breeding. They are inserting genes from totally different kingdoms. Selective breeding can only use the genes already in that species.

 

Who among us hasn't stuck it in a particularly ripe peach, warm from the sun?