Author: Professor Good Ales

Patagonian galls such as these harbor the cold-adapted yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus, a parent of the hybrid yeast used to make lager or cold-brewed beer. A field survey has confirmed that the parent yeast S. eubayanus, which somehow made its way to Bavaria 500 or so years ago, is easily isolated in Patagonia. A Wisconsin team recently isolated the yeast, although at low frequency, near Sheboygan, Wis. — the first time it has been found in nature in North America.
And how did it travel to Bavaria hundreds of years ago? OK, this story from the University of Wisconsin, Madison on the mysterious origins of bottom-fermenting lager yeast is a little “inside baseball” — for the anorak brigade, as the Brits might say — but it is interesting to brewers and beer lovers.

SCIENTISTS FIRM UP ORIGIN OF COLD-ADAPTED YEASTS THAT MAKE COLD BEER

MADISON, Wis. — As one of the most widely consumed and commercially important beverages on the planet, one would expect the experts to know everything there is to know about lager beer.

But it was just a few years ago that scientists identified the South American yeast that, hundreds of years ago, somehow hitched a ride to Bavaria and combined with the domesticated Old World yeast used for millennia to make ale and bread to form the hybrid that makes lager or cold stored beer.

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There is a whole spectrum of “off flavors” that can plague beer, but there is one flaw that is so common many people feel that it’s an intentional flavor in certain brands — especially a particular brand of Mexican lager.

Beer with the distinct aroma of skunk seems inescapable, but  the realities of the scourge are simple and (mostly) preventable. There are lots of myths and misinformation surrounding skunky beer, but let’s set the record straight.

Myth No. 1: “Beer gets that skunky flavor because … ”

We’ve heard just about every explanation for why you may get a whiff of skunk when enjoying a cold brew, from the ever-popular theory that letting cold beer warm to room temperature will cause it to skunk (not true, and not particularly harmful to beer), to the idea that brewers add the flavor during the brewing process (we’ll get to this one). The truth is simple: the musky aroma has one cause: a chemical reaction that occurs when ultraviolet light interacts with the bitter hop compounds in a brew.

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New gear for the homebrewer!!!-The Professor

Immersion is the world’s smallest lager fermentation device, giving brewers the ability to create world class lagers without a refrigerator. Immersion can bring your beer down to 35º F below ambient in a matter of days and hold it there for as long as it is plugged into the wall. Immersion has the same footprint as your carboy so no additional space is needed to create a lager! Now it is possible to brew a lager in your closet, bedroom, living room, or any tiny corner of your house.

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