45 million year old yeast in new brew

Talk about a cold swig of history.

Beer made from a yeast 45 million years old will soon be hitting taps in California.

Northern California microbrewerStumptown 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.

Find out where after the jump.

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."

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.

via: slashfood.com