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A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have developed a new way of producing yeast hybrids in their labs. In fact, one of the four new hybrids have already been put to use in new recipes of beer. The researchers take their wisdom to develop new species from the old-school German cave brewers. These brewers accidently led to hybridization of yeast species while making the ale. The new strain of yeast, known as the Saccharomyces eubayanus, was selected by the cold caves organically as the bottom fermenting strain, unlike the top-fermenting yeast Saccharomyces cervisiae that helps in production of ale, reports Mother Board

The research is being conducted by Alexander and his colleagues that is also published in Fungal Genetics and Biology that will help the brewers and all those that are associated with yeast. As per the researchers, the brewers will be able to experiment with the flavors and get more creative with the drink which was not a possibility before. Currently, the problem that most brewers face is when they try to mix the yeast with an outside flavor. Since yeast is barren, they are unable to develop spores and thus are unable to breed nee hybrid of yeast.

Thanks to the team's collective work, they are able to build an efficient method that is capable of producing hybrid yeast in less than a week. "The advantages of the technique are speed, efficiency, and precision," said Chris Todd Hittinger, a UW-Madison professor of genetics and the senior author of the new study. "If you have a favorite ale strain, for example, you should easily be able to hybridize it with a wild strain using this method. Within a week, you can generate a large number of hybrids of whatever two species you want, creating forms never seen before. There is a lot of potential out there for new flavors and combinations," says University of Wisconsin News