Biotransformative yeast: A case study in production efficiency

As the world of IPAs and hoppy beer styles has developed, so have yeast strains to complement these fruity, juicy styles of beer. Brewers have an incredible abundance of choice and can select strains to enhance passionfruit, peach, stone fruit, citrus, and piney resins, among other characteristics.

This abundance of choice presents a compelling opportunity: Could your yeast strain help optimize your production process and/or raw ingredient selection while it enhances the key characteristics of your desired hoppy style? By selecting the right yeast, brewers have the chance to unlock flavor potential and efficiency gains — making yeast strain selection a powerful lever for maximizing savings and streamlining operations.

Biotransformation: The yeast and hop winning combo

Enhancement of flavors using yeast is called biotransformation and involves the yeast interacting with hops in one of two ways. The yeast either releases highly active compounds from sensory inactive precursors or changes the flavor characteristics by modifying specific hop-derived flavor compounds.

Knowing that yeast can modify hop compounds, how would this modification affect a brewer’s production process or hop selection/addition?

To find an answer to one part of this question, we partnered with Lake Time Brewing & Spirits in Bridgman, Michigan, USA, which produces a core Hazy IPA with LalBrew Pomona™.

According to Aaron DePue, Brewer at Lake Time:

“We originally gave LalBrew Pomona™ a try because we’d worked with several similar yeast strains before, but none really hit the mark for us. Once we switched, the difference was clear — the hop expression was noticeably better than anything we’d used previously. It brought out the character we’d been chasing. So, we wondered if we could reduce our dry hop rates as a result.”

The curious question was simple: Could they use less hops in their hazy IPA? LalBrew Pomona™ is an example of a strain that has high biotransformative capabilities and exhibits strong peach, coconut, and stone fruit character, making it an ideal choice for this experiment.

Taking research to the brewery

Lake Time’s experimental design was simple and involved brewing a batch of their Hazy IPA and splitting it into two different fermenters with one fermenter using fewer dry hops. Both beers were fermented with LalBrew Pomona™, with one fermenter (Beer A) using their normal dry hop amounts while the second beer (Beer B) used 1/3 less dry hops.

Using a customer tasting panel

Based on these results, the brewery has decided to move to a reduced hop rate for their core Hazy IPA made with LalBrew Pomona™.

Not only will the brewers optimize hop use but also will gain yield in their fermenter, allowing their lovely customers to drink more of their beer!

“What really sealed the deal was how easy LalBrew Pomona™ was to harvest and repitch,” DePue said.
“Every time we pulled samples in the lab, the yeast cell counts were consistently high, which gave us confidence in its reliability. The study we did later was eye-opening. Not only did Pomona enhance aroma, but we realized we could better take advantage of specialty hop varieties when pairing with the right strain without sacrificing flavor. That meant better control of ingredient input, less trub loss, and, ultimately, better margins and increased sales. It’s been a game-changer for us.”

Final remarks

As brewers navigate cost savings and recipe design, it is helpful to keep in mind that yeast can be a workhorse in driving aroma and flavor. Brewers should consider yeast and hop selection pairings to efficiently achieve their desired flavor profile. For recipe changes, tasting panels are a fun, simple, and effective tool to assess customer preferences!