Wild Patagonian Lager Yeast Ancestor Found!

courtesy Diego Libkind, Institute for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Bariloche, Argentina

In the gall sacks of Argentinian beech trees scientists have found a strain of wild yeast believed to have provided the “missing half” of the lager yeast genome. The international group of geneticists has been on a mission to identify the wild yeast that centuries ago combined with common ale yeast to form the clean-tasting cold-fermenting superhefe we know as Saccharomyces bayanus. To celebrate I am drinking a Magic Hat Hex Ourtoberfest, their märzen offering.

I have two thoughts on this discovery. First, of course the press release would come from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Second, I hope Budweiser puts this in a commercial and somehow relates it to their beechwood aging process.

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