Our strains remove the off-flavors that ordinary strains produce. Our Fresh line of yeast keep diacetyl ultra-low, which provides a blank canvas for you to create the beer you want to make. No distractions or muted flavors. While it’s easy to make a yeast that keeps diacetyl low, it’s difficult to make one that holds up to industrial brewing conditions. We dialed these strains so they are more robust than other yeast. This technology is also more reliable than adding ALDC enzyme.
“I almost feel like it’s a cheat code,” says Brian Cendrowski, the co-founder of Fireforge Crafted Beer, who now makes his IPAs with Berkeley Yeast’s Fresh strains, “It’s been a game-changer.”
Explore Fresh™ Strains
With precise bioengineering you can get purely the flavors you want without the ones you don’t want. For instance, our Tropics line creates intense passionfruit and guava notes reminiscent of the finest southern Hemisphere hops, but without bringing along undesirable flavors and astringency that you might get from an over-the-top hop charge. How do we do it? We take the biochemistry from natural sources—like hops, fruits and other edible plants—and put it into yeast, without any extra baggage. With more flavor coming from yeast and less from agricultural inputs, not only can you make a better beer, but you can save on ingredients and make a more consistent and sustainable product.
“It’s helping us push the limits of what’s possible with flavor,” says Alvarado Street’s J.C. Hill.
Explore Tropics™ Strains
Our NA strains are the only ones that are bioengineered to make non-alc beer that tastes like beer. To achieve authentic beer flavor, we’ve engineered the yeast to produce less alcohol during fermentation and also to produce key flavor compounds at the right levels. So the beer actually tastes like beer and not like partially fermented wort. No mechanical dealcoholization required.
Explore NA Strains
Whether you’re seeking to enhance an existing product, improve the consistency and scalability, or reduce your reliance on expensive and inconsistent ingredients, we can custom build a yeast to your preferences and needs. The resulting strains are protected by our broad patent portfolio so you get best-in-class technology that is one-of-a-kind.
Explore Custom StrainsOur strains remove the off-flavors that ordinary strains produce. Our Fresh line of yeast keep diacetyl ultra-low, which provides a blank canvas for you to create the beer you want to make. No distractions or muted flavors. While it’s easy to make a yeast that keeps diacetyl low, it’s difficult to make one that holds up to industrial brewing conditions. We dialed these strains so they are more robust than other yeast. This technology is also more reliable than adding ALDC enzyme.
“I almost feel like it’s a cheat code,” says Brian Cendrowski, the co-founder of Fireforge Crafted Beer, who now makes his IPAs with Berkeley Yeast’s Fresh strains, “It’s been a game-changer.”
Explore Fresh™ StrainsWith precise bioengineering you can get purely the flavors you want without the ones you don’t want. For instance, our Tropics line creates intense passionfruit and guava notes reminiscent of the finest southern Hemisphere hops, but without bringing along undesirable flavors and astringency that you might get from an over-the-top hop charge. How do we do it? We take the biochemistry from natural sources—like hops, fruits and other edible plants—and put it into yeast, without any extra baggage. With more flavor coming from yeast and less from agricultural inputs, not only can you make a better beer, but you can save on ingredients and make a more consistent and sustainable product.
“It’s helping us push the limits of what’s possible with flavor,” says Alvarado Street’s J.C. Hill.
Explore Tropics™ StrainsOur NA strains are the only ones that are bioengineered to make non-alc beer that tastes like beer. To achieve authentic beer flavor, we’ve engineered the yeast to produce less alcohol during fermentation and also to produce key flavor compounds at the right levels. So the beer actually tastes like beer and not like partially fermented wort. No mechanical dealcoholization required.
Explore NA StrainsWhether you’re seeking to enhance an existing product, improve the consistency and scalability, or reduce your reliance on expensive and inconsistent ingredients, we can custom build a yeast to your preferences and needs. The resulting strains are protected by our broad patent portfolio so you get best-in-class technology that is one-of-a-kind.
Explore Custom StrainsBrewers Using Berkeley Yeast
Turning Off Unwanted Flavors: How Berkeley Yeast’s Fresh Strains Create Low Diacetyl IPAs and Lagers
Like most brewers, Danny Priddy has a pretty discerning palate. The director of brewing operations at Riip Beer Company in Huntington Beach, California, is particularly sensitive to diacetyl, an organic compound that, at low concentrations, can mute hop notes in beers like Riip’s aroma-charged IPAs. At high concentrations, diacetyl can add an unwanted buttery note.
How Tropics Strains Are Helping Brewers Create More Aromatic IPAs
J.C. Hill, the cofounder of Alvarado Street Brewery in Monterey, California, wanted to make a hazy IPA that’s welcoming in both flavor and price point; increasing the hopping rate increases a beer’s price tag, and a $24 four-pack is a hard sell to many drinkers. So he built a recipe around Tropics London and three hop varieties that impart flavors evocative of kid-favorite candies including Lifesavers, gummy bears, and peach rings. “They line up super-well with the passion fruit and guava flavors you get from the yeast,” says Hill, who calls Tropics “a game changer.”
How Berkeley Yeast’s Superbloom Builds Highly Drinkable Hoppy Beer
Over the last decade, boom-and-bust cycles have defined the IPA category. Sour IPAs, overly bitter palate wreckers, and bone-dry brut IPAs have mostly disappeared, a dry-hopped gold rush that didn’t quite pan out. Session IPAs also fizzled out, even though the concept seemed like a certain winner. Drop an IPA’s alcohol by volume to a more restrained 4 or 5 percent, keep flavor and aromatics high, and count the profits. Outside of Founders All Day IPA, many session IPAs were too dry and thin to support hop bitterness.
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Strains Available to Order Online
If you're interested in Summerstone, Tamed, Fresh Augustiner, Fresh Hazy Chico, or Sunburst, please contact us.
TROPICS™ Strains
ELEVATE ANY IPA WITH EXTRAORDINARY TROPICAL FLAVORS
FRESH™ Strains
KEEP DIACETYL ULTRA-LOW
NON-ALC Strains
MAKE NON-ALC BEER THAT ACTUALLY TASTES LIKE BEER
SUPERBLOOM™ Strains
DECREASE YOUR HOP BILL WITH HOPPY AND FLORAL NOTES
GALACTIC™ Strains
BRIGHT AND CLEAN ACIDITY - NO KETTLE SOURING NEEDED
The Latest at Berkeley Yeast
Tim Sciascia’s Tropics Boosted Hazy IPA
Looking to lower costs on your Hazy IPA but not at the expense of aromatic potency? This recipe relies on a heavy dose of Berkeley Yeast’s Tropics Boost and fermentation with Tropics London yeast strain for an attention grabbing bouquet of passionfruit.
Recipe: Tim Sciascia’s NA West Coast IPA
Brewing a tasty nonalcoholic beer is dramatically different from brewing one of normal strength—but this recipe provides a great jumping-off point for making something pleasurably hoppy but without the alcohol.
Recipe: Tim Sciascia’s NA Light “Lager”
Drinkers who are familiar with American light lager will be impressed by this crisp nonalcoholic version. Even more amazing, nonalcoholic beer production’s shortened fermentation can move this “lager” from grain to glass in as little as one week.
Nonalcoholic Brewing Best Practices
Former Kona and Cellarmaker brewmasters have created the following guide to give you an advantage in a booming NA market.
Tim Sciascia's West Coast Pilsner Recipe
This recipe creates a wonderfully light and aromatic, highly drinkable hop focused lager with our ultra-low diacetyl Fresh Andechs strain. With drinkers’ ever-increasing preference for lower ABV beverages, this West Coast Pilsner will satisfy both the hop and lager heads.
Tim Sciascia (Co-founder of Cellarmaker) Joins the Berkeley Yeast Team!
Tim Sciascia, Co-founder and Director of Brewing and Blending at the renowned Cellarmaker Brewing Co., has officially joined the Berkeley Yeast team. For those unfamiliar, Cellarmaker has earned a devoted following and numerous accolades, including being named one of the Top 20 Small Craft Breweries by Craft Beer & Brewing in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
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