The quest of the Morpheus Yeast
Marc (“the yeast whisperer”) has a Master degree in food science engineering with a specialization in dairy. Since years, he is going on holiday in the French Auvergne. This area is the place to be for cheese lovers. It is there where the best French AOC cheeses like Saint Nectaire, Bleu d’Auvergne have their origin. It was in that particular mystic area of France, with its old volcanoes, where Marc found his yeast, or must we say, the yeast found him?
He created his own recipe for a growth medium for yeasts, and trapped his strain in the open nature of the Auvergne. Of course, some “not wanted” yeast strains were growing in the beginning also, and it took him some years to select the interesting ones. This has asked a lot of dedicated patience. What are the criteria for good brewing yeast? First of all, it must be capable of fermenting maltose, the sugar that is found in malt. Further on, it doesn’t produce off flavors and it is alcohol tolerant.
Pilot tests were confirming above properties of the yeast culture and by January 2010, the sour range of Alvinne beers and some selected beers were fermented with the Morpheus yeast culture.
Almost none of the microbreweries around the world have their own unique yeast. Most of them use commercial yeast. Alvinne brewery thanks a big part of her uniqueness to this yeast. For the big traditional breweries that exist for several generations, the yeast is their treasure and kept safely in yeast banks under -70°C circumstances, in order to have a backup when things go wrong. Also Alvinne has a backup, safely put away in these super deep freezers.
PHI "Demi" Sour Ale
Alc./Vol.: 10.0
