Brewer’s yeast in controlled and uncontrolled fermentations, with a focus on novel, nonconventional, and superior strains

ABSTRACT

Historically, brewing beer came from uncontrolled spontaneous fermentations; nowadays, spontaneous fermentation is still used in speciality products such as Belgian acid beers (e.g., lambic, gueze, and Rodenbach) or in various traditional beers worldwide. On the other hand, industrial fermentations sometimes require a combination of phenotypic traits that might not be commonly encountered in nature. In some cases, the demand for increased productivity, as well as changing consumer preferences, leads to a great interest towards improvement and/or design new strains or yeast variants. This review addresses the following topics: controlled and uncontrolled fermentations, and advances in the selection of novel, nonconventional, and superior strains for beer.

KEYWORDS:

• Controlled fermentation
• design
• improvement
• spontaneous fermentation
• yeasts