Unlocking the Genetic Code of Brewing Yeast with Chris White – BeerSmith Podcast #131

Dr Chris White, the President of White labs joins me this week to discuss an ongoing collaboration to unlock the genetic code of yeast. Chris has been working with scientists around the world to categorize various types of yeast and tie their genetic codes to yeast traits.

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Topics in This Week’s Episode (41:56)

• Today my guest is Dr Chris White the President of White Labs. Chris is the 2015 winner of the AHA Governing Committee award for lifetime achievement as well as author of the book Yeast (Amazon affiliate link) which is the bible on brewing yeast.
• We start with a discussion of how Chris got into unlocking the “genetic code” of brewing yeast?
• Chris explains how yeast was one of the first genomes fully decoded back in 1996.
• We talk about some of the advances in genetics including genetic testing for humans.
• Chris discusses a bit of the history of yeast which was only discovered recently when you consider the thousands of years of brewing history.
• Chris tells us of the main species of yeast used in brewing as well as the difference between a species and a strain.
• We talk briefly about Brett which was once a part of every beer before we started culturing single strains
• Chris explains the difference between top and bottom fermenting yeast
• Chris talks about the yeast groups they have found genetically and how they are different
• We discuss the goal of the research which is tying genes to specific traits of the yeast itself such as phenolics, maltose growth, alcohol tolerance, etc…
• Chris share some of his results with regards to yeast traits and genetics
• Chris explains how understanding yeast genetics might help us develop future yeast strains
• We briefly touch on genetically modified organisms (GMO) though no commercial yeasts are currently GMO
• He summarizes a few projects ongoing at white labs.

Sponsors

• Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
• And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
• Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.

Thanks to Chris White for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!

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