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ASBC Program

Focus Session - Next-Gen Brewing Yeast: Evolution, Innovation, and Application

Friday, August 15, 2025
3:15pm - 4:30pm PDT
Location: Springs Ballroom F
Description: A wide variety of yeast strains are available to meet brewers' needs. However, many existing strains have properties that could be improved, such as suboptimal performance, undesirable effects on flavor, or inappropriate flocculation. Furthermore, new yeast properties could be invented that expand the range of what yeast can contribute to brewing.

In this session, we will have experts in yeast strain development discuss their latest and greatest work to improve yeasts and give them novel characteristics. Two strategies will be emphasized: 1. experimental evolution, where lab cultivation is used to select for new mutants with specific properties such as changes in metabolism or clumping and 2. engineering, where targeted genetic modifications are made to introduce or modify traits.

Relevance: This session is highly relevant to the conference audience since everyone needs yeast for brewing. Novel yeast strains can improve existing brewing workflows, but also expand what's possible in new directions.

Brewing Summit 2025 Theme: The use of laboratory evolution for strain improvement is a very literal interpretation of the meeting theme, Evolving in a New Environment. New yeast strains can also meet needs in an evolving market and in the face of pressures on brewers.

Learning Objectives:

  • Attendees will understand how different strategies of strain development work.
  • The audience will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of various strategies for strain development.
  • By the end of the session, attendees will be aware of several recent applications of these strategies.