The long-missing parent yeast of lager beer was discovered newly, and is believed to have sailed from Patagonia in South America, taking a 7000-mile journey to Bavaria, the birth place of the most popular alcoholic beverage of today.
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager.
Yeasts are microscopic fungi that feast on sugar, converting it to carbon dioxide and alcohol via the process of fermentation.
German lager yeast appears to have originated on beech trees in southern Argentina. But how did it get to Europe 600 years ago?
Scientists have identified a yeast that led to the discovery of lager.
The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America.
Their discovery suggests that this yeast crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago and combined with one traditionally used in Europe to make ale.
The discovery is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Credit for the discovery of this wild yeast goes to Diego Libkind of the Institute for Biodiversity and Environment Research in Bariloche, Argentina, who was interested in the ball-shaped lumps of sugar that form on beech trees there.
The lumps, called galls, are an immune response to invasion by a fungus. They are abundant in the spring and local Aborigines such as the Mapuche traditionally use them as a slightly-sweet topping for salads.
Yeasts are microscopic fungi that feast on sugar, converting it to carbon dioxide and alcohol via the process of fermentation.
German lager yeast appears to have originated on beech trees in southern Argentina. But how did it get to Europe 600 years ago?
Scientists have identified a yeast that led to the discovery of lager.
The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America.
Their discovery suggests that this yeast crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago and combined with one traditionally used in Europe to make ale.
The discovery is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Credit for the discovery of this wild yeast goes to Diego Libkind of the Institute for Biodiversity and Environment Research in Bariloche, Argentina, who was interested in the ball-shaped lumps of sugar that form on beech trees there.
The lumps, called galls, are an immune response to invasion by a fungus. They are abundant in the spring and local Aborigines such as the Mapuche traditionally use them as a slightly-sweet topping for salads.
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