othellomcbane
Well-Known Member
Recently I've been growing curious about the history of yeast. Everything I've read about the history of beer usually focuses on the societal aspect of it, but I'd like to know how regional variations of yeast developed. How did this happen in the centuries before people even understood what yeast was or what role it played in beer production?
So a few things I'm wondering about. 'Wild yeast' is generally used as synonymous with Brett, something that'll end up funky, but I assume that there has to be more to it than that — a random 'wild yeast' could turn out to be a plain ol', boring Sacc strain, right? I mean, again, at one point in history all yeast was wild; it all had to come from somewhere. Eventually, these wild Sacc yeast must have won out and become the dominate, 'traditional' strains.
Regional yeast strains, I'm guessing, were probably selected by inoculating new wort with fermented beer, ensuring that the same strain was allowed to propagate, evolve, and dominate. Or something like that. But I assume Brett and bugs would have very often been a component as well, unless Star-San has been around longer than I realize. Can one assume that almost all ancient beer styles would have had some slight funky component unless they were consumed extremely fresh? This is something I never see mentioned or experimented with when breweries (Dogfish Head, for instance) try to accurately recreate an ancient style. The yeast never seems to play much into it, which seems odd.
Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone knows more about yeast's wild history than I do, and would like to share thoughts or point me toward some reading material. I think spontaneous fermentation is one of the coolest things ever, and it's even more amazing to realize that all beer had to start out this way.
So a few things I'm wondering about. 'Wild yeast' is generally used as synonymous with Brett, something that'll end up funky, but I assume that there has to be more to it than that — a random 'wild yeast' could turn out to be a plain ol', boring Sacc strain, right? I mean, again, at one point in history all yeast was wild; it all had to come from somewhere. Eventually, these wild Sacc yeast must have won out and become the dominate, 'traditional' strains.
Regional yeast strains, I'm guessing, were probably selected by inoculating new wort with fermented beer, ensuring that the same strain was allowed to propagate, evolve, and dominate. Or something like that. But I assume Brett and bugs would have very often been a component as well, unless Star-San has been around longer than I realize. Can one assume that almost all ancient beer styles would have had some slight funky component unless they were consumed extremely fresh? This is something I never see mentioned or experimented with when breweries (Dogfish Head, for instance) try to accurately recreate an ancient style. The yeast never seems to play much into it, which seems odd.
Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone knows more about yeast's wild history than I do, and would like to share thoughts or point me toward some reading material. I think spontaneous fermentation is one of the coolest things ever, and it's even more amazing to realize that all beer had to start out this way.