B.C. researchers turn to wild yeast in bid to help struggling craft breweries

A new research project out of Langara College and the University of British Columbia is exploring how to brew beer — using wild yeast foraged from around the province. 

According to the study, it could be a way to give B.C.’s struggling brewing industry a financial break, while creating some new beer flavours in the process. 

Funded by Genome B.C., researchers and their students gathered wild yeast from across the B.C. and the Pacific Northwest region, including in Prince George. 

Project lead Dr. Stephanie Cheung explained there is traditionally a very narrow selection of commercial yeast available for brewing. 

Hop growing is very water intensive, she said, and the recent years of drought have made it difficult for the crop to thrive. 

Brewers also heavily rely on importing hops from the United States, where tariffs add to expenses. 

“A lot of people thought, ‘Oh yeast, that’s just for fermenting, making the alcohol,’” said Cheung who is also an instructor at Langara College. 

“But they [don’t] realize that yeast is almost like a little factory. They have a lot going on there in terms of their metabolic pathway.” 

She said the project started with an idea from a colleague, who had his students collecting samples for botany class, as well as simple conversations about beer. 

“We started piecing these two together to see whether what we do in the classroom can help support the brewing industry to get through a challenge [and] offer some new ideas,” she said. 

From there, they started exploring how yeast could be used more effectively in brewing beer. 

Different strains found in the wild can produce different profiles, minimizing the reliance on adding hops for flavour, she explained. 

“We added the yeast with the malt extract, without any hops,” said Cheung.

“I was able to fool some of our colleagues because they were like, ‘Oh, it tasted like a mango or tropical fruit,’ and we were telling them, nope — we didn’t add [hops].”

Cheung said they are hoping that their work can eventually make getting a pint of beer cheaper in the long run.

Sourcing close to home

Two Lower Mainland breweries are supporting the project, including Parallel 49 in Vancouver and Barnside Brewing in Delta. They have both written letters of support for the researchers to obtain grant funding. 

Barnside Brewing grows and utilizes its own hops, and the majority of its own grain, said co-founder and general manager Ken Malenstyn. They have also captured their own wild yeast.

But he said he would like to see local breweries be able to access local products.

“The more that we can keep stuff here at home, that’s great from a business perspective … but it’s also a more unique taste journey,” he said.

“Terroir in beer is no different than in wine. So, you can taste a beer that we’ve created that’s not available anywhere else because nobody else has access to those ingredients.”

Cheung and her colleagues hope to create the province’s first wild yeast discovery and characterization platform for breweries. A prototype is expected this year.