Abstract
Beer is a fermented beverage with a history as old as human civilization. Ales and lagers are by far the most common beers; however, diversification is becoming increasingly important in the brewing market and the brewers are continuously interested in improving and extending the range of products, especially in the craft brewery sector. Fermentation is one of the widest spaces for innovation in the brewing process. Besides Saccharomyces cerevisiae ale and Saccharomyces pastorianus lager strains conventionally used in macro-breweries, there is an increasing demand for novel yeast starter cultures tailored for producing beer styles with diversified aroma profiles. Recently, four genetic engineering-free approaches expanded the genetic background and the phenotypic biodiversity of brewing yeasts and allowed novel costumed-designed starter cultures to be developed: (1) the research for new performant S. cerevisiae yeasts from fermented foods alternative to beer; (2) the creation of synthetic hybrids between S. cerevisiae and Saccharomyces non-cerevisiae in order to mimic lager yeasts; (3) the exploitation of evolutionary engineering approaches; (4) the usage of non-Saccharomyces yeasts. Here, we summarized the pro and contra of these approaches and provided an overview on the most recent advances on how brewing yeast genome evolved and domestication took place. The resulting correlation maps between genotypes and relevant brewing phenotypes can assist and further improve the search for novel craft beer starter yeasts, enhancing the portfolio of diversified products offered to the final customer.
Highlights
Human history is woven with brewing activity ever since the beginning of civilization in the Neolithic period [1,2,3]
Comparative genomics demonstrated that most of the S. cerevisiae ale strains were genetically distinct from wild stocks, and mainly clustered into two independent lineages, called Beer 1, and Beer 2 [21,22]
In addition to S. pastorianus, other hybrids have been isolated in brewing environments, such as hybrids between S. cerevisiae and Saccharomyces kudriavzevii from Belgian Trappist beers [70] or Saccharomyces bayanus (S. eubayanus × S. uvarum) hybrids isolated as contaminants from beer [38,71]
Summary
Human history is woven with brewing activity ever since the beginning of civilization in the Neolithic period [1,2,3]. Apart from some specialties mainly diffused in Belgium and the UK, in the past decades, few macro-breweries dominating the global beer market promoted strong homogenization of products toward the mild lager beer styles. Craft beer is produced by small, independent, and traditional breweries [16] and Belgium and the UK, in the past decades, few macro-breweries dominating the global beer market promoted strong homogenization of products toward the mild lager beer styles. These products represent 90% of the beer market [6].
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