Wisconsin's (Un-)Discovered Yeast

Wisconsin's (Un-)Discovered Yeast

Unnecessarily detailed history and background provided for one of the most obscure, piddling PODs in alternate history?
Yes.

A lot of fun stumbling upon it and “developing” it into a “timeline”?
Hell, yes:cool:.



Origins of the Monroe Brewing Company


In 1845, Mr. Bissinger opened a brewery in the beautiful rolling green hills of Southern Wisconsin, inhabited by many people from Switzerland and simply called it Monroe Brewery. These new Swiss immigrants had brought their dairy expertise and passion for artisanal cheese making skills to their new homeland. To this day, Monroe has the most certified specialty master cheese makers in the entire country. The brewery ownership has changed every 60 years since that time (and therefore the name of the Brewery). The brewery has been constantly expanded and modernized such that it now takes up almost 3 city blocks in downtown Monroe with over 300,00 square feet of buildings but one thing have remained the same – tradition of making the best beer in the world on exactly the same spot where the brewery was founded.

He founded the Brewery at its present site. At the time, it was a winter operation consisting of a Brew Kettle and could only make a few hundred barrels per year. On October 30, 1841, John M. Knipschield was living in Lee County in North Central Illinois when he made his declaration to become a citizen of USA and broke his alliance with “Frederick William the Fourth, King of Prussia”. Shortly after Wisconsin became the 30th state in the United States, Mr. Knipschildt purchased the Brewery. By 1850, he had invested $1000 into the Brewery and produced 366 barrels per year. The Brewery was hand powered, employed two men who were paid $50 per year and wood and coal was used for fuel. He was also a Treasurer and a Trustee of Green County.

At this time, the Brewery had 2 cellars, a malt mill and a malt drier. The malting of barley was done right at the Brewery. In 1858, they built the underground beer storage cellar as there were no ice controlled or mechanically controlled cellars at that time. Lager beer was produced for the first time during their ownership – prior to this only ales were brewed. Winter was still the only time that brewing took place. (….)


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Jacob Hefty (Born April 15,1835, Died 1892)


The Art and Science of Brewing

Saccharomyces pastorianus is a yeast used industrially for the production of lager beer, and was named in honour of Louis Pasteur by the German Max Reess in 1870.This yeast's complicated genome appears to be the result of hybridization between two pure species in the Saccharomyces species complex, a factor that has that led to difficulty in establishing a proper taxonomy of the species. For the longest time the only known/used form of yeast was Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

So-called bottom fermenting strains of brewing yeast were described as only as early/late as the 14th century in Nuremberg and have remained an indispensable part of both Franconian and Bavarian brewing culture in southern Germany through modern times. During the explosion of scientific mycological studies in the 19th century, the yeast responsible for producing these so-called “bottom fermentations” was finally given a taxonomical classification, Saccharomyces pastorianus, by the German Max Reess in 1870.

The Serendipity Yeast

Jacob Hefty was born in Canton Glarus, Switzerland, and came to Green County in 1847. He was the first person of his nationality to learn the English language in the town of New Glarus. He married Catherine Blumer in 1857 and had 6 children. He might have been another name in a long list of Monroe Brewing owner if it was not for a fortunate discovery. After developing an interest in the scientific study of yeast pioneered in Europe, he began to wonder if there were any uniquely American strains of yeast, that could potentially marketed as a form of local patriotism. Indeed he found Saccharomyces americanus(1) which looked rather similar yet distinguishable from Saccharomyces pastorianus. Soon he began experimenting and among other things creating very vigorous hybrids. This also inspired the theory that Saccharomyces pastorianus was itself a priorhybrid of Saccharomyces americanus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In fact recent genetic analysis pretty have pretty much proven that point. As for Hefty, he made a hefty sum of money from his discovery.

Notes and Sources

(1) Saccharomyces americanus in OTL known as Saccharomyces eubayanus. It is also the POD as eubayanus was discovered in OTL as late as 2011. Researchers from the Wiscon-Madison University have now found three different strains of S. eubayanus in Wisconsin. They were isolated from an old beech tree stand at Sheboygan Indian Mound Park.

Minhas Craft Brewery – Family Owned since 1845

Wisconsin-Sourced Lager By Chris Hittinger, David Peris Navarro, Kayla Sylvester

Wikipedia

http://www.shantybrewery.com/s-eubayanus/
 
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Insider

Banned
Indeed well researched and obscure. What is the net gain except the butterfly effect I don't know. From what I gather we were using this yeast for centuries without realising it.
 
Indeed well researched and obscure. What is the net gain except the butterfly effect I don't know. From what I gather we were using this yeast for centuries without realising it.

Well, it is rather inconsequential in the grander scheme. It would pretty immediately allow for some unique local brews, and maybe in the future some improved new hybrid yeast strains. As how this discovery could be scientifically important showing the diversity and spread of yeast this article Lessons of lager: Yeast origin becomes a complex tale (2016) by University of Wisconsin-Madison shines some light on the potential relevance of POD.
 
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