Proprietary Yeast?

[Teromous]

I brought this up in another thread but I figured it belonged here instead. One of the other forum members mentioned that he was using Pacman Yeast (Wyeast 1764).

It is mentioned on the Wyeast website that this yeast is a proprietary strain from Rogue, and is for sale only to home brewers.

Additionally, I noticed on the White Labs website under the FAQ, that they do not use genetically engineered strains of yeast. This led me to believe that genetically engineered strains must be more common than I know of.

So I was wondering how this all works. Does a brewery create a genetically engineered yeast strain, so that they can protect their recipe? What would happen if a commercial brewery would use the Pacman yeast, instead of a home brewer? I understand that there are yeasts that are commonly used, and that many breweries use "regular" yeasts. I just wanted to hear from any of you who might have some insight from either the standpoint of a chemist who deals with this, or a commercial brewer working with unique strains like these.

 

[mkling]

I am neither a chemist or a commercial brewer, but I believe that the only thing that makes it "proprietary" is that Rogue is disapproving of any common seller of yeasts selling it. That is, Rogue pays someone who specializes in yeast to both keep a yeast bank of their strain and to produce yeast for them. I'm guessing this is how Wyeast and/or White Labs makes most of their money -- providing yeast to commercial brewers including Rogue. If so, then if I were Rogue & I didn't want others to use my yeast, I'd get them to sign a contract that they wouldn't produce for others my yeast. These companies then won't do it in order to honor the contract & to keep Rogue happy. However, if you cultured Rogue's yeast & set up a brand new yeast ranching business, nothing would stop you from selling Pacman yeast in the same way that Wyeast & White Labs at some point harvested Chimay, Weihenstephaner, etc. and are selling them widely now. Pacman is not an engineered strain & is not protected by patent or copyright in any way. (The name "Pacman" may be copyrighted; I'm not sure. But the organism is not.

Most of this flows from bits & pieces I've heard, but I'd guess it is pretty darned accurate.

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

I haven't heard of any genetic engineering of brewers yeast.
Many breweries have "house" strains that have evolved due to natural genetic drift over the years.
I think the White Labs statement was made because someone has asked the question.
It seems to be a bigger issue in Europe than in the USA.