Tag Archives: science

Ancient Yeasts

They have apparently discovered the final? parent of lager yeast-in Ireland!

This is cool for a couple reasons to me: first being that, hey there’s still a lot of the world to discover!

The other is that they’re going to try to make a commercial partner to brew beer with this yeast, and I’m all here for it.

Heavy Metals

I have no idea how far the implications of the study in this article might go, but if yeast can purify something humans desperately need to live? That’s absolutely amazing.

The implications are massive too, as yeast is cheap. Obviously there are other concerns-one still has to remove yeast from the water, and the scale at which these things would have to be built isn’t small but damn if it isn’t cool.

Where Yeast Comes From (Sorta)

Here’s a really neat post, talking about how they’re using gene sequencing to find out where yeasts that make beer originated geographically.

Using ale yeast makes sense-beer is a centuries old food, and humans would have an interest in utilizing it, much in the same way that we kept avocados around. So being able to trace it can help fill in bits and pieces of our ancient history-which I think is cool.

Past Becomes Present

I have been hoping something like this would happen. I’ve been posting stories for years about beer or wine that’s been salvaged from shipwrecks, and about scientists looking at those beverages.

Taking data from those drinks can illuminate how human beings have impacted our environment.

BUT. There’s this Very Cool Thing where we get to play with yeasts from decades ago, and see how those yeasts impacted the food and drink of the day, and I’m psyched to try them.