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| Stumptown's XPort. Photo: Steve Kocino/flickr |
Beer made from a yeast 45 million years old will soon be hitting taps in California.
Northern California microbrewer Stumptown Brewery is already selling two brews made with the yeast, extracted from a prehistoric piece of amber found in Burma. But as early as next month, Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. plans to distribute two others made with the yeast on a larger scale.
Don't expect to be drinking mead when you down one of the company's wheat or "Ancient Ales."
"In the world of microbiology, 45 million years doesn't cause a lot of changes," Chip Lambert, the president of Fossil Fuels Brewing Co., of Oakland, Calif., told Slashfood on Wednesday. "We call this the mother of all modern yeasts, but it's just a 45-million-year-old mom."
Find out where to find the prehistoric brew after the jump.
The yeast colony, grown from samples extracted from prehistoric amber, do different things than their modern cousins in the brewing department, he says.
"We've certainly noticed a couple of different characteristics in its sugar assimilation and a couple of different characteristics in how it brews," Lambert says. "It's not that much different from modern brewing yeast, but it's enough different that it really adds unique flavors and brews in a pretty unique way."
Stumptown has already experimented with the yeast in its X.P. and XPort brews. But Kelley Brothers Brewing Co. in Manteca, Calif., will begin brewing on a commercial scale with the yeast this month, Lambert says. The company will use the X.P. recipe for the Ancient Ale, according to Stumptown.
Fossil Fuels Wheat beer and Fossil Fuels Ancient Ale should be ready for distribution in the California Bay Area by September, he says. It will only be available in kegs.
"We just hope that it gets out there and everybody enjoys it because it is unique and it is very good," Lambert says.
| Sure, I'm game. | |
|---|---|
| If the price is right. | |
| Not on your T-Rex. |
[Via The Pueblo Chieftain]
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8-06-2009 @1:03PM Manuel Mass said...
the person who wrote that mead isn't beer is correct.
Everyone has to have a gimmick and this way of making mead is no exception.
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8-06-2009 @1:16PM gd said... The yeast was made from 45M year old yeast, it is not 45M years old. Amber is rather easy to rasdio-actively date, especially with carbon bearing life forms included. Earth is 4.6 to 4.8 B years old. Any one with a modicum of knowledge of Science and Mathamatics knows this. Faith and reason are two differant spheres, please keep them that way.
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8-06-2009 @1:25PM Gerry said... From reading the comments, I can't believe how many people hate my beloved state of California. Or maybe, I can't believe how jealous they all are that they don't live here in God's country!
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8-06-2009 @1:28PM paul said... IS IT CARB APPROVED, I DOUBT IT. I BET ITS DIRTY AND WILL RUIN THE AIR IN WASHINGTON STATE. OUR GOVERNOR IN WASHINGTON STATE WILL JUMP ALL OVER THIS BECAUSE WHAT CALIFORNIA DOES, SHE MUST DO.
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8-06-2009 @1:55PM sgunknown said... they should call it Jurrasic Dark
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8-06-2009 @2:42PM homebrewer said... If you add ale to mead you dont have beer or mead. It is called braggot. I just kegged a batch of braggot yesterday. Braggot is half grain and half honey in the wort balanced by hopping heavily.
As for the yeast being dangerous... All yeasts today are about the same age. None of the yeasts are that old. When you make a yeast culture the yeast breeds and multiplies rapidly making new cells. The yeast can not harm you. As a matter of fact it is very healthy being loaded with vitamin b. Some of the larger breweries filter and pasturize their beer which kills the remaining yeast cells. Good microbreweries don't filter or pasturize their beer and you will see a little sedement at the bottom of the bottle. This sedement is protiens and dead yeast cells. Not only is the sedement harmless but it is good for you. Yes, it does give some types of beer an off flavor if you stir it up but in the case of a hefeweizen the yeast and protiens are in solution giving it its cloudy appearance and wonderful taste.
Prost!!!
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8-07-2009 @1:51PM Harry said... I just felt the need to write something when i saw tony4christ2 say that "God's creation isn't that old." I always like to jeer and laugh at people who believe that the earth has been here for 6-10 thousand years. Man people are still ignorant.
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8-06-2009 @4:46PM Mal said... I've got some forty-five year old milk in my refrigerator for sale on E-Bay. Starting bid is $100,000.
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8-06-2009 @6:18PM tom said... I think I'll let it stay on the market for a couple hundred years before I chance it, . .
Just to be safe, . . Ya know ?
I'm not too big on volunteering
to be a Guinea Pig !
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8-06-2009 @6:53PM S. Kocino said... Well - I've had it... and it's not bad. No side affects that I can tell. Plus I would try it again. Thanks for using my photo of the brew in a pint glass at the Stumptown Brewery.
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8-07-2009 @4:45AM Avi said... These are some of the worst comments I've ever read on this site. Shame on all (most) of you.
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8-07-2009 @3:53PM Spoonman said... @Harry: not all of the fundies are that ignorant. It's a decidedly American thing that there are still some idiots who take the bible literally. They are fortunately on a very rapid decline (mostly because rednecks like them like to kill themselves shooting at stopsigns). They also believe the Earth is flat, surrounded by a crystal sphere and the whole universe revolves around it. How do you fight that kind if ignorant illogic? You don't even bother, you put them in an institution where they belong.
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8-07-2009 @3:53PM FoodLovesBeer said... Wren is absolutely correct, and mead is not beer in ANY sense, and there is no historical record of it being regularly mixed with ale. Ale, as anyone who really knows will tell you, needs bittering agents (originally herbs, then hops) to balance its inherent sweetness, not the other way around.
Anyway, the whole article is confusing. First we're told that '45 million years doesn't cause a lot of changes', a few sentences later 'The yeast colony... do different things than their modern cousins in the brewing department', and then the ultimate confusion - "It's not that much different from modern brewing yeast, but it's enough different that it really adds unique flavors and brews in a pretty unique way." WHAT???
My guess is that they won't have to expand brewing operations any time soon.
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