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With the slogan, \u201chighest cell count in the industry\u201d, you might not immediately guess that Inland Island Yeast Laboratories is actually one of the most important companies supporting the brewing industry.\u00a0 I had the pleasure of talking with Matthew Peetz, one of the two Inland Island owners, and learned all about the essentials of high-quality yeast for a high-quality brew.<\/p>\n
Inland Island Yeast Labs started in 2014, cultivating yeast in a spare bathtub, just to see what would happen to the cells.\u00a0 With a background in cell biology, Matthew has always been interested in fermentable goods and with figuring out the story behind each strain\u2019s unique flavors. While Inland Island began marketing to homebrewers, once their first partner brewery, Joyride Brewing, signed on, the secret got out.\u00a0 Now, the majority of Denver and Metro Denver Breweries get at least some of their yeast from Inland Island.\u00a0 One of the reasons Inland Island has become so popular is that yeast must be shipped same\u00a0day, making it particularly expensive for brewers.\u00a0 Finding an operation that\u2019s not only local but also is impeccably good at cultivating and marketing its product; it\u2019s a dream come true.<\/h2>\n
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Matthew is somewhat of an expert in the history of yeast, so the start of our conversation took us back a few hundred years.\u00a0 Humans have been fermenting food and beverages for centuries, as soon as they learned that anything over 5% alcohol wouldn\u2019t allow pathogens to live (and, not to mention, the effects of alcohol).\u00a0 Humans quickly figured out that yeast could be cultivated and re-used from any unpasteurized fermented beverage.\u00a0 In fact, one of the most interesting tidbits I learned from my conversation with Matthew was that all lager yeast comes from the same original yeast colony, started in Germany in the 1880s.\u00a0 Other countries\u00a0soon caught on, and Ale and Belgian yeast also all have ties to\u00a0only a few original sources in Europe. Yeast has a deep history throughout the world, and Inland Island has figured out how to cultivate it in a way that allows brewers to continue to find new flavors and combinations while maintaining historical roots.<\/p>\n
Yeast is one of the most vital components of any great beer.\u00a0 Not only is the yeast what allows the wort to become alcoholic, and thus become beer, but yeast is also what gives different styles of beer their unique and distinctive flavors.\u00a0 Have you ever had a Belgian style beer, and tasted that banana and spice flavor?\u00a0 A lot of that flavor profile comes from the yeast used in fermentation!\u00a0 You really can\u2019t make a Belgian taste like a Belgian without using Belgian yeast.\u00a0 Another example Matthew gave that underscores the importance of using the right yeast for the right brew is the process of making a K\u00f6lsch style beer.\u00a0 Most beer drinkers know that a traditional K\u00f6lsch style is a crystal clear beer.\u00a0 However, the K\u00f6lsch strain of yeast makes beer particularly hazy.\u00a0 During our discussion, I learned that adding in a strain of California Ale yeast clears the beer right up, making it look like your traditional K\u00f6lsch.<\/h2>\n
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So where does the original yeast come from?\u00a0 Usually, it comes from other beers or previous strains that have been morphed by growers overtime.\u00a0 Matthew described that a small amount of yeast lives at the end of any unfiltered beer.\u00a0 You can cultivate yeast from any unfiltered beer by pouring the very bottom of the beer into a petri dish and letting it grow. Matthew shared that several brewers come to Inland Island with some of their favorite rare and interesting beers from all over the world and will ask the Inland Island team to cultivate the yeast from that beer.\u00a0 Once there is enough yeast for a brew batch, the brewery makes their own concoction with it.\u00a0 Often, they report back to the Inland Island team about what flavors developed, and if they liked the brew, how they might replicate that yeast strain and continue to use it. \u00a0It\u2019s all about combining ideas, flavors, and molecule structures to see how they interact.<\/p>\n
Yeast strains are like any other fruit, vegetable, herb, or bread starter.\u00a0 They have been cultivated from an heirloom variety, and then changed and morphed over time as different strains are added together, or as one particularly powerful strain continues to be cultivated and used in more brews.\u00a0 The Inland Island folks have over 200 different yeast strains in storage, just waiting to be used in different beer experiments.\u00a0 They even have a few strains that no other company has, really setting them apart from the pack.<\/h2>\n
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The last piece of the puzzle is understanding what form of yeast will give you the best tasting brew.\u00a0 You may have seen yeast at your local grocery store, you know, the bright yellow Fleischmann\u2019s packets.\u00a0 That\u2019s what is known as dry yeast. While it may work for homemade pizza dough, it\u2019s not the best for brewing.\u00a0 While not all yeast varieties can be dried, those that can still aren\u2019t as flavorful as yeast in liquid form.\u00a0 When yeast is dried, a good portion of it dies, meaning that a lot of the flavor is lost and isn\u2019t transferred to the product you\u2019re fermenting.\u00a0 Not only that but if you leave dead yeast in a fermenting beer it can autolyze (meaning the yeast cells rupture) and cause a meaty, cheesy taste to the beer.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you, but when I think beer, I typically don\u2019t think \u2018meat and cheese\u2019.\u00a0 On the other hand, liquid yeast packs a punch and brings ever changing and evolving flavor to the beer you love.\u00a0 Keeping yeast in liquid form also ensures that it stays alive and active so that when you being fermentation the yeast is ready to eat up all the delicious sugars in your beer wort.<\/p>\n
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Overall, I\u2019d say this was one of the more interesting and in-depth conversations I\u2019ve had about beer and the beer making process.\u00a0 From what Matthew tells me, it sounds like we will see a good share of pastry stouts coming up as well as some interesting flavor combinations with yeast cultivation from rare world beers. Unfortunately, you can\u2019t tour Inland Island, but I would absolutely suggest checking out their products in various homebrew shops around Denver, especially if you\u2019re thinking about making your own brew.\u00a0 Inland Island is really making a name for themselves after only four years of being open and based on how knowledgeable Matthew was during our conversation and how popular Inland Island products have become with brewers, I don\u2019t see them going anywhere anytime soon!<\/p>\n
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