Not too long after SandLot Brewery at Coors Field opened, Charlie P stopped by for a visit. All of us brewers were greatly honored by his presence.
He had a story and a question for us. He related how Finn Knudsen (former Director of Brewing Research & Developement at Coors and one of the designers of the cylindro-conical fermenter) gave him a sample of yeast one day. "Charlie", Finn said, "This is a VERY special yeast. It will make some great beers." Charlie asked him it's pedigree. Finn would never say where it came from or anything about it. After much prodding, Finn finally gave him a Coors internal reference number.
Charlie proceeded to use this "special" yeast for all his beers. He fermented warm, he fermented cold. He fermented high gravity beers and low. He kept re-propagating it. Multiple generations went by and this yeast mutated into what is now known as "Cry Havoc"
After the story, he told us the Coors internal reference number. He asked us if there was any way we could find out where the yeast had come from. At that time, SandLot was part of Coors Brewing R&D. I called over to the lab and asked the manager if she could look up this sample. She said no problem and would call back shortly.
About 10 minutes went by and she returned my call.
She said that particular sample was taken from a keg of Bud.
Charlie was shocked!
All this time he was fermenting ales, wheats, barley wines, and even meads with Budweiser yeast.
Today, I am sure Cry Havoc doesn't resemble it's progenitor much, but it did originally come from a keg of Bud.
