A yeast from Argentina’s Patagonia could usher in a beer revolution

[ncbrewer]

I just read the article. The link is A yeast from Argentina’s Patagonia could usher in a beer revolution - Not much info that home brewers can use, but interesting.

Edit: Having trouble posting the link. Try this:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/beer-yeast-patagonia-24092024/

 

[shoengine]

Well, the premise is flawed. Yeast is merely one out of myriad factors that alter the taste of beer, but it's being either intentionally or accidentally ignored in the research, and they are looking at just examples of "yellow, fizzy beer" as all lagers.

Now if they could do some research into fixing consumers, that would increase the diversity of flavors in commercially available lagers.

 

[MicroMickey]

Saccharomyces pastorianus is identified as the yeast used for making lager beer. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast used in brewing Ale.

Saccharomyces eubayanus was discovered in the Patagonian Andes in 2011. Genome mapping has determined that S. eubayanus and S. cerevisiae are the parents of S. pastorianus. However, it surely seemed like S. eubayanus was a deadbeat dad and skipped town after the event.

Subsequent discoveries of S. eubayanus have been made in North America, China, Tibet, and New Zealand. Now we have "breaking news" that for the first time in history, it has been found in Europe. In 2021, researchers at University College in Dublin, Ireland discovered and isolated two separate strains of S. eubayanus. These strains were found in soil samples taken only 17 meters apart in a wooded section of the University campus.

It seems that this deadbeat dad actually never left town. It is likely that further research will find strains of this species of yeast in other parts of Europe as well.

 

[Broothru]

Saccharomyces pastorianus is identified as the yeast used for making lager beer. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast used in brewing Ale.

Saccharomyces eubayanus was discovered in the Patagonian Andes in 2011. Genome mapping has determined that S. eubayanus and S. cerevisiae are the parents of S. pastorianus. However, it surely seemed like S. eubayanus was a deadbeat dad and skipped town after the event.

Subsequent discoveries of S. eubayanus have been made in North America, China, Tibet, and New Zealand. Now we have "breaking news" that for the first time in history, it has been found in Europe. In 2021, researchers at University College in Dublin, Ireland discovered and isolated two separate strains of S. eubayanus. These strains were found in soil samples taken only 17 meters apart in a wooded section of the University campus.

It seems that this deadbeat dad actually never left town. It is likely that further research will find strains of this species of yeast in other parts of Europe as well.

What we generally regard as very fragile yeast cells are indeed quite robust, in addition to being very ubiquitous and small enough to be carried on the wind.

Could this micro-organism have been a component of ancient Pangea that merely hitched a ride when the sub continents decided to go it on their own? Did proto- homo sapiens crossing the Bering Strait land bridge inadvertently become the first inter-continental import/export business?

The presence of sacc. var. Eubayanus in Argentina should not be a surprise. But if I were to offer a guess, it wouldn’t surprise me if early European settlers brought it with them in soil from vinyard cuttings that were planted in the Mendoza region near the southern Andes. Sacc. var. Eubayanus is IIRC the primary yeast variant used in the production of wines in the Champagne region of France.

 

[MicroMickey]

Genetic mapping has been done and S. eubayanus along with S. cerevisiae seem to constitute slightly better than 99.5% of the DNA of the combined hybrid S. pastorianus.

The Nuremberg Statute book of the 14th century indicates the existence of bottom fermenting beer and therefore bottom fermenting yeast. A Munich town council record mentioned cold-fermented beer as early as 1420. The first European explorer to reach Patagonia was Magellan in 1520. How then would a yeast species from 16th century Patagonia make it to 14th century Nuremberg? Or 15th century Munich?

Marco Polo travelled to China and Mongolia in the late 13th century. S. eubayanus has also been discovered in China, Tibet, and Mongolia. The time period seems right but did he bring it back with him (knowingly or not) after his 24 year odyssey in Asia?

Another working theory is that S. eubayanus existed in Europe and made its way to these other areas of the world before apparently going extinct in Europe. This theory, at first look, seems to be a bit of a stretch but as it turns out, scientists hadn’t looked for it in the right places.

Scientists state that the two yeast species are as genetically different as birds and mammals. Yet, evidence suggests, that over a period of time, two separate hybridizations of these yeasts occurred.

It is more likely that S. eubayanus and S. cerevisiae have always existed together along with the myriad of other microscopic entities which permeate our world. At some time the two produced S. pastorianus as a hybrid. S. eubayanus apparently died out, at least in Europe, leaving the other two main yeast species to carry on in this big world.

Yeast isn't as simple an organism as we once thought.

 

[AzOr]

Send Cerevisiae and Pastorianus to the Maury Povich show.

 

[mac_1103]

Yeast isn't as simple an organism as we once thought.

"Simple life form" is an oxymoron. The minimal genome for a free-living microbe is just under 500 genes. Saccharomyces have about 6,000. They're phenomenally complex.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Yup. Weird. I farm their children, then I apply them down my pie hole. Yet when we as a species are dead and gone, they will still be here. Prosit!