Brewer's yeast has been modified to make both alcohol, and hop aromas by researchers at Berkeley and the US Department of Energy's Joint Bioenergy Lab . Charles Denby, Rachel Li, Jay Keasling and a number of collaborators recently published a paper in Nature Communications. They describe a technique to modify brewers yeast to express two molecules known to contribute hop flavor and aroma. The paper provides an analysis of the relative expression of these compounds, as well as the yeast's fermentation efficiency. Quite remarkably, the authors report the results of a tasting panel trained by Lagunitas Brewing Company to assess beer flavors in ~10 gallon batches of beer. Should we call it home brew? Lab brew? Sci-brew? If I had any idea that beer tasting notes could be publishable in a Nature journal , I would have considered more strongly a career in academia . Yeast Cells - by Scanning Electron Microscope As cool as all this is, what does i...
Enjoyed simply, or thoughtfully, beer is a complete refreshment.