Synthetic Hops in Beer:
Can Engineered Yeast Give the Brewing Industry a New Sustainable Leg to Stand On?
Currently, producing hops needed for brewing beer is very resource-intensive. A new method of engineering yeast would be able to produce the compounds that give beer its hoppy flavor, completely in yeast, increasing sustainability and decreasing the use of precious resources.
Yeast was engineered to improve the traditional method of adding hops to beer by expressing the genes that code for the hop proteins in baker’s yeast. This was done to reduce the resources that are involved with in the cultivation and production of hops including land, water, fertilizer, and transportation factors and provide a more sustainable approach to brewing hoppy beer. Not only can hoppy beer be produced more sustainably with this method, but another result is a more consistent hoppy flavor and increased levels of the hop proteins in the finished beer product.
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