Custom Strains
Although the possibilities of what yeast can do are endless, the only one that matters to you is the one that you need. Which is why in addition to offering a line of readily available yeast strains for commercial brewers, we also partner with food and beverage manufacturers to create exclusive yeast strains that are customized to address highly specific issues.
Custom Yeast Strains not the right solution for you?
What does a partnership with Berkeley Yeast look like?
Achieving a new yeast strain that benefits your fermentation in exactly the way you need requires both your deep product expertise and the talent of our science and engineering team. This interdependence and our shared goal animate the partnership through four phases of every project:
1. Discovery
Whether you have a specific trait or only a general outcome in mind, each project begins with discussions that help us better understand your objectives and your fermentation processes. These discussions are informed by molecular analyses and then translated into engineering goals with a set of performance specifications that guide the design of your custom strain.
2. Design
With a clear objective established, a range of genetic engineering strategies are used to build numerous strain variations which are then rigorously assessed in micro-fermentations. Once variants show promise of satisfying the engineering goals, they’re sent to our R&D fermentation facility for further testing.
3. Test
Our R&D fermentation facility has a wide range of capabilities that allows us to conduct precisely controlled tests of custom strains in a process that matches your own. We perform side-by-side fermentations that allow us to evaluate a single variable at a time, giving us detailed insight into how genetic and process modifications can affect the quality of the end product. The custom strain is then shipped to you for trial runs in your own facilities.
4. installation and support
Along with the delivery of custom strains for final testing at your facilities, our team also provides the learnings from our own testing as well as our knowledge from every one of our strain development efforts to troubleshoot any issue that may arise. Once the strain delivers reliable results and is ready for commercial launch, we can either ship your yeast in a pitchable quantity or co-develop standard operating procedures for in-house propagation.
A range of extraordinary yeast strains that produce impressive flavors and address some of the most common issues faced by commercial brewers are available for purchase today. You may never go back to ordinary yeast again.
