CUSTOM SOLUTIONS

Extraordinary yeast made with you, for you

The Potential of Berkeley Yeast Technology

Berkeley Yeast provides end-to-end service to the fermented beverage industry for bioengineering solutions. In essence, we take biochemistry from throughout the natural world and place it inside yeast. As a result, the yeast can do some novel and extraordinary things:

  • Of all the many flavor-active compounds normally produced by yeast, dial up the ones you want or dial down the ones you don’t. 
  • Add an even wider range of compounds, whether for flavor or function, by incorporating the biochemistry from any plant or microbe into yeast. Then fine-tune their intensities to your exact specification.
  • Use biochemistry in novel ways to solve otherwise intractable problems. For example, remove smoke taint precursor compounds by assembling novel biochemical pathways that eliminate their precursors before they can be formed. Or dial up quality-related traits such as shelf stability and haze properties.

What’s more, all these technologies can be stacked together in a single yeast strain of your choice. Within that expanse of possibilities, the goal of our Custom Strains is to find the one that’s right for you. Our talented team of experts has experience delivering custom products across a wide range of applications including beer, wine, cider, and distillates. Whether you’re seeking to enhance an existing product, improve the consistency and scalability of your products, or reduce your reliance on expensive or fickle ingredients, our development process turns possibilities into reality. Best of all, the resulting technology is custom-built to your exact process and preferences. 

Let’s create something extraordinary.

Innovation Through Collaboration

Our process requires both your deep product knowledge and our multidisciplinary R&D team’s scientific ingenuity. Custom Solutions is more than a service offering. It’s a deep collaboration through which we co-create yeast strains that give you a defensible competitive advantage.

Consultation and Discovery

Our collaboration begins with an essential phase of consultation and discovery. Whether your vision is crystal clear or still taking shape, our initial discussions are designed to align our objectives with yours, and set a path for mutual success.

Strain Design and Prototyping

Leveraging advanced bioengineering and analytical chemistry, we start the creative process of strain construction. Our core R&D toolbox includes gene discovery, enzyme engineering, and pathway optimization, all with the potential to create unique intellectual property. Our ability to prototype hundreds of strains in micro-fermentations, and then down-select the most performant strains for further evaluation in our pilot brewery, allows our team to efficiently deliver high quality prototypes.

Refinement and Optimization

As we work together to evaluate and determine the most promising strains, our focus shifts to dialing in the traits that match your precise requirements. We will bring our yeast prototypes to you for on site piloting to ensure that every aspect of the strain’s performance is optimized for your specific conditions. This phase may entail working iteratively with you to fine-tune performance.  

Installation and Support

The first commercial production at your facility marks an important milestone in the success of the project, but our support extends beyond that; we’re committed to ensuring a seamless integration of the new strain into your operations. From troubleshooting to performance optimization at scale, we’re here to work with you through every step. Our support includes process recommendations, regulatory compliance, and can even involve crafting consumer-facing materials to help convey your brand’s extraordinary story.

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