Scientist uses 45 million year old fossilised yeast to brew beer. Professor Raul Cano of the California Polytechnic State University uses this fossilise yeast to brew the beer. The 45 million year old fossilized yeast came from Lebanese weevil covered in ancient Burmese amber. After recovering the tiny colony of Yeast the Professor decide to brew the beer, to make it more interesting he invited the beer reviewer to taste the beer.

The outcome of the beer taste “a weird spiciness at the finish”. Maybe is due to the metabolism of the yeast or maybe is not the suitable yeast or maybe the scientist just suck at brewing beer. I’m not too sure. But the yeast sure come a long way. So thanks to the evolution of yeast, we now can have a tasty pint of beer, rather then the spicy of taste. Cheers to the yeast!

Researchers have mapped the DNA of dozens of strains of yeast used for brewing, baking and biofuels. With this mapping will only mean one thing create a better beer. Ed Louis of the University of Nottingham said with this kind of strain, the brewers can pick the best yeast to produce the best beer.

Of course the article is longer then that. It tell how the yeast can produce better biofuel and better cure of cancer, aging and alzheimer. Here is the article.  More than 70 strains of yeast is mapped from the baking, beer brewing and wine making yeast.

Hope this research will faster conclude and high quality yeast mix with high quality hops, a high quality tasty beer will come to our serving beer glass. Can’t wait for this new strain of yeast to come to play for this new generation of beer making. To brewery I hope this research will get a whole new generation of beer, to beer drinker a new taste is coming to town. But when? Patiently wait, I believe it will take at least 1-2 years before we can enjoy it!

Many of you sure know the simple ingredient of beer that are mostly grain like wheat or barley, hops, yeast and water, of course with some added ingredient to get certain flavour. Most beer are made out of barley but other grain like wheat, rye, oats, rice, spelt and etc. This grain are familiar to those who have healthy diet, as this are the same grain in their cereal. So why don’t just drink beer for healthy diet…haha (you know I’m kidding right).

So I going to explain a simple how beer is made in step by step procedure:

Step 1
Choose the grain of their choice to produce the type of beer. Different grain produce different type of beer with their own distinctive taste. Most brewery will have the type of grain that are near to their breweries or grain that are easy to obtain by them.

Step 2
After choosing the grain, it goes in to a process called gemination. This process require soaking of the grain for a few days to extract the sugar, this trigger the germination, mimicking the growth of the seed. During this process the complex molecules break down into smaller chemical unit that sugar can be extracted.

Step 3
After that, the germinates grain are send to a kiln. The Kilning process is complex, air flow and heat are tightly control to make a specific type of beer. The kilned product is now called malt, which have a small percentage of moisture content, The malt release sweet and malty sugar aroma when u taste it.

Step 4
After a period of storage, the malt is carried to the brewery. They crack the malt and turned into a “grist”. The grist is soaked in hot water in a mash tun. Selected water also will play rolled of the type of beer. The time taken to complete the mashing process and the temperatures used will be vary from beer to beer. Once the sugar release the sweet liquid is called “wort”. The wort is separated from the grain and transfer to the kettle.

Step 5
The next stage is the flavouring process, hops are added in to the kettle together with the wort and then boiled. During the process the hop release 2 vital component that are resins and oil. Resin give the bitter taste and oil is the hoppy aroma in the beer. Other addictive are added to give more taste and flavour.

Step 6
After boiling, the residues of hops and other addictive are removed. The wort now are quickly cooled by passing over a heat exchange device. After all this, the wort are ready for their ultimate transformation.

Step 7
The fermentation start when yeast are added into the cooled wort, held in a large conical-cylindrical stainless steel vessel. Fermentation will only slow down after the yeast have digested the sugar. The fermentation produce a lot of carbon dioxide which make the drink carbonated. 

Step 8
Pressure is maintain inside the tanks to keep the beer carbonated. Finally the beer is filter to remove residual yeast and is ready to bottling. Some beer are bottle without filter, so that yeast  are added to the bottling. Most bottle are filter without the yeast. Viola, the beer is now ready to drink!

This is just the simplify version of how a beer is made, of course in each process, further detail are needed to take care of each process, like temperature, water contain, other addictive flavouring. The process take experience and experimental to create a good beer. Of course, homebrew kit can let you understand the making of beer more, but not all have the privilege to do so as restricted by country law.

For now, happy drinking as your knowledge of beer have just increase. Know what beer you drink and Cheers!