In an attempt to better understand many of the cocktails and topics we discuss here at the Black Liver Project, we went back to the beginning of it all to really get a grasp on what is going on here. We started with the most basic and direct question we needed to begin the store, “What is Alcohol?”. Having learned what alcohol is and where it comes from, we need to continue the story by closely examining the pieces and players in the process. Sreedhar Yedavalli and I decided that the next piece of the puzzle is yeast and their oh-so-naturale role in the process. For this piece of the tale we invited our friend, homebrewer and accredited beer judge, Matt Mayes, to join us. Sreedhar gives us the lowdown and dirty science of yeast, who they are and what they do. and Matt tells us how he, as a brewer, uses yeast in practical application so we can get an idea how the science meshes with the making of beer, wine and spirits. The key learning: Yeast having sex brings on the flavor.
It’s important to note that we did this online with video cameras so on our You Tube channel you can see us chatting and see Sreedhar’s graphics as he discusses the wee beasties. We have the video embedded below as well.
Phylogenetics of Yeast.full.pdf
