Many of you are familiar with Richard Preiss, who was at the festival in 2017, and has done breakthrough work on farmhouse yeast. Now he’s returning to the festival to talk about his latest paper, which provided unique new insights into European farmhouse yeast.
Here is a chance to catch up to the cutting edge of farmhouse yeast research with one of the main people doing that research.
What do we know about European farmhouse brewing yeasts?
For the last near-decade, researchers have been interested in studying European farmhouse brewing yeasts including Norwegian kveik. These studies have led to considerable insights into the origin, stress tolerance, and flavour potential of European farmhouse yeasts. Studies conducted by our own lab in collaboration with other researchers in Canada and Finland have shown that kveik is a genetically distinct group, which fits into a larger group of European Farmhouse brewing yeasts that is distinct from common industrial brewing yeasts. Our studies are also showing some of the benefits of these yeasts in terms of stress-tolerance. This talk will provide an overview of the scientific work to date, with focus on a recent publication. In conjunction with historical researchers such as Lars Marius Garshol, this work will help understand, preserve, and contextualize traditional beers and their unique ingredients.