Re: Fungus formula: Yeast essential ingredient

[Guest guest]

thanks KC, I think Ill pass,lol, I dont think yeast is to happy

with

me.

--- In , " tigerpaw2c " <tigerpaw2c@...>

wrote:

>

> Fungus formula: Yeast essential ingredient in making bread, beer

and

> wine

>

> By Hudson Sangree

> Scripps News Service

> Complete Living Index

>

>

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/03102006/currents/91960.htm

>

> Exeter News-Letter - Exeter,NH

>

> With hopes for a bountiful new year, this is a good time to say a

> word of thanks to Saccharomyces cerevisiae - the common yeast - and

> the many gifts it bestows on us.

> Invisible yet indispensable, the one-celled fungus is the key agent

> of bread, beer and wine.

>

> There's no doubt that without it we'd be drinking grape juice.

>

> Yeast, it seems, might even have prompted the beginnings of modern

> civilization. According to some historians, humans gave up their

> nomadic ways and settled in villages to grow grain for baking and

> brewing after they discovered the benefits of yeast, namely

> fermentation and leavening.

>

> Writing, science and culture followed.

>

> There are scholars who say the Egyptians who built the pyramids

were

> paid with bread and beer.

>

> " Without yeast, where would the human race be? " asks

> , head winemaker at Bogle Vineyards in sburg, Calif.

>

> Calling yeast an " unsung hero, " suggests that a bit of

> gratitude might be in order. Billions upon billions of yeast cells

> must die in their own alcoholic excretions to make a bottle of

> petite sirah, he notes.

>

> " It's a great sacrifice they make for us, " says .

>

> Not all yeast are so unlucky.

>

> At the University of California-, millions of the microbes are

> living to old age in a room resembling a walk-in cooler.

>

> The university's Department of Food Science and Technology houses

> one of the world's largest collections of yeast, with more than 500

> species and 6,000 strains, including heirloom wine yeast from

> California and Europe.

>

> Much of the collection was gathered by professor Herman J. Phaff,

> who has been called the Indiana of yeast.

>

> On expeditions to Japan, Argentina, the Caribbean and Mexico, Phaff

> gently scraped samples of yeast from tree branches and fruit,

> cactuses, flowers and rotting stumps. He brought the prizes back to

> UC-, where he worked for decades.

>

> " He really laid the foundations for our understanding of yeast, "

> says Kyria Boundy-Mills, Phaff's successor as curator of the

> collection.

>

> Though Phaff died in 2001 at age 88, much of his yeast lives on in

> thousands of test tubes arrayed on wooden shelves.

>

> Stepping into Phaff's storeroom is like entering a strange

n

> museum, except the natural specimens aren't dead and stuffed but

> resting quietly, giving off their distinctive yeasty scent.

>

> The oldest of the yeast is from 1893, according to Boundy-Mills.

>

> There are about 20,000 test tubes filled with small samples of

yeast

> and fluid and corked with cotton wool. The yeasts are dormant but

> can be revived easily.

>

> For efficiency's sake, the collection gradually is being

transferred

> to a freezer and stored at a temperature of minus 100 degrees

> Fahrenheit. That's cold enough to freeze human skin on contact, but

> the hardy yeast can survive. Warm it up, give it food and water,

and

> the yeast will grow again.

>

> The yeast in the Phaff collection is identified, studied and shared

> with other universities.

>

> Boundy-Mills also assists biotechnology companies that use yeast in

> genetic research and as living factories for organic chemicals,

> including pigments, proteins and enzymes.

>

> Much of this work ultimately benefits humans, with whom yeasts have

> more in common than they do with plants or bacteria.

>

> " They are the simplest form of higher life, " says Boundy-Mills.

>

> Yeasts must eat; unlike plants, they can't produce their own food

> through photosynthesis. And unlike bacteria, yeast cells have a

> nucleus and genetic structure like ours.

>

> Still, they are very basic organisms. They are also tiny. One gram

> of yeast contains some 20 billion cells.

>

> Yeast feeds on sugars and excretes carbon dioxide and alcohol. As a

> kind of fungus, yeast grows naturally on high-sugar fruits such as

> grapes. It even floats through the air.

>

> At her lab, Boundy-Mills is experimenting with different strains of

> yeast meant to attract flies that are destroying California's olive

> crop.

>

> One of Phaff's discoveries, gathered from a tree in Japan, is a

type

> of yeast that contains a rosy pigment. The substance is fed to

> farmed salmon to give their flesh - naturally white - its pink

> color.

>

> In bread-making, yeast colonies can thrive for decades, producing

> flavorful sourdoughs and crusty baguettes. Some dough starters in

> France are more than 100 years old.

>

> At the Village Bakery in , Aziz Fattahi has been feeding and

> growing his yeast strain for a dozen years. On a recent Friday, a 5-

> gallon bucket of yeast, flour and water sat bubbling by a sunny

> window.

>

> Yeast thrives on warmth and food.

>

> " If you add a couple of grams of yeast to water and flour, within

24

> hours you'll have a few gallons of poolish, " he says, using the

> French term for the baking mixture.

>

> That, in turn, will produce dozens of airy, golden loaves - the

> leavened bread that first persuaded nomads to take up farming.

>

> Even good yeast can go bad, however.

>

> The microorganisms are always present in large numbers in our

> bodies. In their natural balance, they are beneficial, but an

> imbalance can cause infections.

>

> Jungle rot, which has plagued soldiers by eating up their canvas

> tents and leather boots, is the result of yeast at work.

>

> In beer-making, bad or weak yeast can impart a " funky, moldy,

cheesy

> taste, " says Costello, owner of Brew It Up in Sacramento,

> Calif.

>

> The right yeast, however, can impart pleasant flavors such as

cloves

> or banana to wheat beer, and will create a clean-tasting lager or

> ale under proper conditions, he said.

>

> At the Anheuser-Busch plant in Fairfield, Calif., brewmaster

> Poley says he works hard to keep his yeast happy, making sure it is

> well-fed and has ideal conditions in which to grow.

>

> The brewery can produce 136 million gallons of beer each year. But

> all that Budweiser depends on the well-being of the yeast, a secret

> strain used by Anheuser-Busch since 1876.

>

> " I think of the yeast as almost having a personality, " Poley

> says. " You have to have a lot of respect for the yeast. If you

don't

> treat it right, it will not produce the beer you are trying to

> produce.

>

> " It's like your companion in the brewing business, " he says. " If

> it's not happy with you, then you're not happy. "

>

> Distributed by Scripps News Service, www.shns.com.

>