White Labs is located in San Diego, CA. This area is very active in brewing, with over 20 brewpubs and microbreweries. White Labs is deeply involved with the local breweries. We develop new yeast strains, trial newly developed strains, and test yeast and beer samples.

White Labs was started in 1995 by Chris White, Ph.D., following years of research and the development of a library of brewers yeast strains from around the world. Chris White received an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from U.C. Davis, where his interest in brewing was inspired by Dr. Michael Lewis’ Brewing and Malting Science courses. He began homebrewing and relocated to San Diego for graduate studies in Biochemistry. Chris’ doctoral thesis focused on developing high cell density growth techniques for an industrial yeast strain. Because of his passion for craft brewing, Chris began to experiment, using the same high cell density growth techniques on brewers yeast. Chris developed a process to grow pitchable quantities of liquid brewers yeast. This innovation caught on quickly within the brewing community and Chris White’s yeast developed a strong word-of-mouth reputation. Chris Mueller joined White Labs in 1997, and brought with him vast experience in customer service and brewery production. Now, White Labs provides high quality, concentrated, liquid brewers yeast to breweries and homebrewers worldwide.

The first homebrew store to carry White Labs Yeast was Home Brew Mart, in the Linda Vista area of San Diego. They carried one strain, White Labs California Ale Yeast, for 3 years, selling out every week within 3 days. Then we expanded to four strains, White Labs California Ale Yeast, White Labs English Ale Yeast, White Labs Hefeweizen Yeast, and White Labs San Francisco Lager Yeast. Now 17 White Labs Liquid Yeast strains are available in the finest homebrew shops nation-wide (plus Canada and Australia), and in thousands of ales and lagers produced by microbreweries and brewpubs.

To order White Labs quality yeast please follow this link to our on-line catalog.

Yeast is beer's unsung hero

Brewery Rowe
San Diego Union 

By Peter rowe

June 21, 2000

You know what they say about beer' s ingredients. "It' s the water."

"The finest hops."

"The choicest barley malt."

You know what they don' t say. "It' s the single-celled fungi."

In the kingdom of beer, yeast is Cinderella before the ball. After slaving away,the homely little ingredient is expected to fade into the wallpaper -- easy to do when you' re microscopic -- and let the glamour pusses take the bows.

"Sometimes yeast doesn' t even get mentioned," said Chris White, a professor of biochemistry at UCSD and the proprietor of White Labs in Mira Mesa.
"All you hear about is malt, water, hops."

Yeast, though, plays a crucial role -- some say the crucial role -- in brewing. These microscopic characters are the stars of a fabulous yarn, which zig-zags from medieval European monasteries to a 19th century Parisian laboratory. A truly romantic saga, it' s all about chemistry.

Let' s start with a shamelessly sketchy explanation of brewing. Malted barley and hops are boiled in a large kettle, cooled, then drained into a fermentation vessel. Here, yeast is added, or "pitched." The fluid is thick with sugars, which the yeast feasts upon, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide in the finished product.

For centuries, this chemical process was a mystery. Beer drinkers owe a lot to Europe' s monks -- hops were first cultivated by Christian brothers in the eighth century, and monastic orders devised one classic beer style after another -- but even they were baffled by yeast. They understood, though, that when fermenting liquids were briefly exposed to the heavens, something wonderful happened.

"God is good," the monks pronounced.

What was happening? "Yeast is in the air," explained White. In the air and on every surface. At this moment, thousands of yeast cells are thriving on your skin. "There' s more in your gut," he added.

Those wild yeasts are unsuited for brewing, though, even if you were
concocting a batch of, say, Peeling Skin Pilsner. Brewers' yeast evolved from the work of Louis Pasteur, the French scientist who, in 1866, peered through a microscope and saw that yeast caused fermentation. Fifteen years later, Emil Jansen, a chemist with the Danish brewery Carlsberg, discovered that yeast came in various species.

Today, two main species are used in brewing. Saccharomyces Cerevisiae is employed primarily in ales, and Saccharomyces Uvarum in lagers. Each offers brewers countless strains.

"Only certain types of strains will make good beer," White warned.

And each strain has its own character. Brewers look at a yeast' s "attenuation," or how efficiently it consumes sugars, and its "flocculation," or how quickly it drops from suspension.

Beermakers also consider the more than 600 flavor and aroma compounds that issue from yeasts. A California ale yeast, for instance, is almost tasteless, allowing the natural properties of hops and malts to shine. An English yeast, though, adds apple-and plum-like textures. Because it is less attenuating than the California strain, the English produces a sweeter beer.

Secret formula

The exact yeast used in a specific beer is often a trade secret. White Labs, which provides yeast to 700 American commercial breweries and more than 1,100 home-brew shops, guards its customers' orders.

"Our relationship with a brewery is kind of like your relationship with your priest or doctor," said Chris Mueller, White' s vice president.

In fact, yeast is treated like a burn patient. When you care for either, what' s the overriding concern? "Three words: sanitation, sanitation, sanitation," said Marty Johnson, brewing manager for Karl Strauss Brewery.

"That' s the whole ballgame. You' ve got to create a pure yeast strain."

Mueller agreed. "Yeast is really easy to grow. Pure yeast -- single-strain yeast -- is extremely hard and very technical."

Mueller calls his firm "a biotech company," and touring White Lab' s warehouses, you see what he means. There are cryogenic vaults, where yeast is stored at minus-80 degrees Celsius. There' s an autoclave, a large pressure cooker that sterilizes beakers and other containers at temperatures of 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

White started this company in 1993, selling yeast to the Home Brew Mart while he completed work on a Ph.D in biochemistry at UCSD. In 1997, he met Mueller, then a marketer for Genentech. They clicked; sales soared.

"In one month," Mueller said, "we tripled our business."

In the mid-1990s, White served roughly 1 percent of U.S. brewers. Now, the figure is around 50 percent. The clientele includes most of San Diego County's microbreweries; the Rock Bottom chain; California upstarts such as Russian River, Anderson Valley, Sudwerk and Twenty Tank; Colorado' s Wynkoop; Montana' s Spanish Peaks; Old Dominion in Virginia, Dock Street in Pennsylvania, Frederick in Maryland and many more.

Locally, Karl Strauss is an exception to this rule, sticking with the German yeast that launched the minichain 11 years ago.

"Our yeast gives a very fruity, sweet finish to our beers," Johnson said.

To illustrate yeast' s versatility, the brewing program at Oregon State University shipped to White Labs a dozen batches of beer made from a single recipe. The only ingredient that varied, from batch to batch, was the yeast strain.

White, Mueller and I sampled the brews, finding an astounding range of flavors. The Irish yeast made for a fruity, yet dry, beer. Burton yeast produced a sharper beer, with hints of pear and clover honey. East Coast yeast reminded us of bread. Kolsch yeast, of sulfur.

As we sipped, Mueller told tales. At a beer conference, one story goes, a ferocious argument rocked the meeting hall. The question: who was the greatest brewer?

Finally, one man brought the debate to a close.

"The greatest brewer?" he shouted. "It' s the yeast. You guys are just the yeast' s facilitators."

Beer notes

QUAFF, the home-brewer' s club, will meet July 18 at Callahan' s, 8280 A Mira Mesa Blvd. The gathering starts at 7:30 p.m.

Russ St. Jean, the beer and wine coordinator for the Del Mar Fair, graciously asked me to help judge the fair' s beer competition. Drop by the paddock area Sunday between 4 and 6 p.m. to say hello and discuss yeast (or those glory-hogging ingredients, malt, hops and water).

Brewery Rowe appears monthly in the Food section. Peter Rowe, the proprietor, welcomes calls, (619) 293-1227; letters, c/o The San Diego Union-Tribune, P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191; and e-mail,
peter.rowe@uniontrib.com

Suds for chemistry lovers

Enough chemistry, already. Which beers best showcase the flavors and aromas of various yeast strains?

Chris White recommends this six-pack:

Start with three local beers, each modeled on classic English ales.

AleSmith ESB: Uses a top-fermenting yeast -- that is, a yeast that sits on top of the brew kettle. "This means a lot more yeast contact, a lot more yeast flavor in the beer. There' s so much yeast character in this brew, people either love it or hate it."

Count White among the lovers. "The yeast gives you a nice, fruity flavor."

Ballast Point Calico Copper Ale: "Uses a yeast strain from an English origin. A ruddy flavor, drier than some strains -- that means it has higher attenuation."

Stone Pale Ale: "Their yeast doesn' t attenuate as far (as Ballast Point' s yeast), so there' s a lot of residual sweetness. The beer has a characteristic fruity flavor."

Add one mass-market lager.

Budweiser: Years ago, Anheuser-Busch ads "talked about how they were using the original yeast that Adolphus Busch brought back from Europe. This gives Budweiser the most yeast flavor of the large breweries, a big
green-apple flavor."

Finish with two European classics.

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen and Hoegaarden: Both start with substantial amounts of wheat malt, light-to medium-light bodies and similar levels of hoppiness. "But the two different yeasts make a great difference in the flavor." The German hefeweizen offers a snootful of banana and vanilla aromas, and a malty-fruity flavor; the Belgian Hoegaarden inclines, in the nose and on the tongue, toward citrus and spice.

-- Peter Rowe



Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

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