Yeast entrapped in Burmese amber is brought
back to life and revived with beer after a
45 million year wait. That's being thirsty!
It’s been a long time waiting for a beer. Found encased in chunk of Burmese amber scientists have brought back to life 45,000,000 year old yeast cells according to the story on wired.com called Amber Ale: Brewing Beer From 45-Million-Year-Old Yeast.
Bringing back to life an organism that’s 45 million years old is one thing, but beer drinkers know satisfaction that it’s being treated right by being given beer to ferments. That’s a long time to wait for a beer!
At first Raul Cano didn’t know what to do with his microbial reincarnations. Eventually he found enthusiasm in Peter Hackett, brewer at The Stumptown Brewery in Guerneville, Calif.
History was made by fermenting a batch of his successful Rat Bastard Pale Ale. What did it taste like? Read the entire story by Erin Biba at wired.com.
Photo left courtesy of Stumptown Brewery; Peter Hackett revives 45 million year old yeast with Rat Bastard Ale
Another story may be developing in Ecuador. Javier Carvajal is a Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, in Quito. Years ago, when he was a biology student he read an article I wrote about the oldest brewery in America appearing in both Zymurgy magazine and currently appearing in the book, Microbrewed Adventures.
Professor Carvajal is brewmaster and biotechnologist specializing in yeast. He reports “Investigation is aiming now to recover ancient yeast, and the recreation of old brews from the Andes: from the ancestral chicha 2000 years ago, to the monk’s beer brewed in the San Franciscan Monastery in Quito,” Ecuador where still stands intact America’s oldest brewery, established in 1534.
Carvajal continues to resuscitate ancient yeasts by means of a method developed to reconstruct cell walls and fluidize cell membranes of ancient yeasts immobilized in clay or wood materials. His group has recovered dozens of different fermenting strains.
Photo right: Visiting the San Francisan Brewery in Quito, Ecuador, now a brewing museum.
Comments
Wow, that beer should be commercialized! It'd make a killing out here!
@Charlie its interesting that he is patenting the yeast .
Would this be similar the licencing arrangement that you have with White Labs to sell your Cry Havoc yeast?
@Halina commercializing the yeast would be a smarter move .
what's the up side to using 'old' yeast other than the marketing aspect? Does it stand up to the yeast we're using now?
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com
yeast is a generic name for more than 1500 different species. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the brewing yeast, has been domesticated by humankind 11900 years ago. Before that time, Saccharomyces species were really bad fermenting yeasts. I cannot imaginde how an ale made from a 45 million years tastes like. I can tell that if this yeast is able to ferment, the flavour is not too pleasent. Genetic studies (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and mtDNA analysis) may support the age of the yeast herein declared, otherwise, no one can believe that the old yeast is real. The second case is more plausible inasmuch as this yeast has been isolated from beer fermenting vats.
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