500 years ago, yeast's epic journey gave rise to lager beer

Physorg.com ^ | August 22, 201 | Terry Devitt

[allmost]

In the 15th century, when Europeans first began moving people and goods across the Atlantic, a microscopic stowaway somehow made its way to the caves and monasteries of Bavaria.

The stowaway, a yeast that may have been transported from a distant shore on a piece of wood or in the stomach of a fruit fly, was destined for great things. In the dank caves and monastery cellars where 15th century brewmeisters stored their product, the newly arrived yeast fused with a distant relative, the domesticated yeast used for millennia to make leavened bread and ferment wine and ale. The resulting hybrid — representing a marriage of species as evolutionarily separated as humans and chickens — would give us lager, the clear, cold-fermented beer first brewed by 15th century Bavarians and that today is among the most popular — if not the most popular — alcoholic beverage in the world.

And while scientists and brewers have long known that the yeast that gives beer the capacity to ferment at cold temperatures was a hybrid, only one player was known: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used to make leavened bread and ferment wine and ale. Its partner, which conferred on beer the ability to ferment in the cold, remained a puzzle, as scientists were unable to find it among the 1,000 or so species of yeast known to science.

[Bon mots]

There is food value in beer.
BUT...
There is no beer value in food.

This simple fact proves that beer is better.

[flat]

Gotta close ‘cause I’m crying in my beer....

crying ? GRAE..r u maxine waters hiding under a nom de plume?

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks ApplegateRanch and neverdem. Lager Beer's Mystery Yeast Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Graewoulf]

SALTINE, not maxine water. Unlike the distinguished Maxine Waters I DO know “The Plan:” 1. Regulate; 2. Control; and 3. Destroy.

Professor You Lie has been crystal-clear on “The Plan.”

[TalonDJ]

We brewers were always taught that lager yeast was first isolated in the mid 1800s.

1800s before they ISOLATED it but they had other processes before then where the yeast got where it needed to be. They just couldn't manually put it in from little baggies labled 'yeast'. I don't know enough to know how they got it in there but I have heard from brewers that back then they had tricks and techniques that caused yeast to end up where it was needed.

[TalonDJ]

We brewers were always taught that lager yeast was first isolated in the mid 1800s.

1800s before they ISOLATED it but they had other processes before then where the yeast got where it needed to be. They just couldn't manually put it in from little baggies labled 'yeast'. I don't know enough to know how they got it in there but I have heard from brewers that back then they had tricks and techniques that caused yeast to end up where it was needed.

[knews_hound]

Pinging the Homebrewers for some interesting news.

Thanks for the ping Last Dakotan.



On or off the Homebrewers Ping List, let me know.

Cheers,

knewshound

Homebrewing 1A (Homebrewing for beginners)

[Grizzled Bear]

"When overmature, they fall all together to the floor where they often form a thick carpet that has an intense ethanol odor..."

Didn't you post this on a Lindsey Lohan thread?

[Rembrandt]

“I know a little about these things.”

Bully for you.

Tell Prof. Linda Raley - she wrote the article, not me.

[Cronos]

though of course, that is thicker beer or ale. The ancient egyptian recipe was almost a thick soup. Also do note other ancient civilisations that had other intoxicants — the Elamites (Iranis) were the first to produce wine. The Harappans probably made soma from the poppy plant. I don’t know about the ancient Chinese.

[Cronos]

“If an Egyptian gentleman offered a lady a sip of his beer they were betrothed.” — dangerous on a night out... ;-P