The exact yeast used in a specific beer is often a trade secret. White Labs, which provides yeast to 700 American commercial breweries and more than 1,100 home-brew shops, guards its customers' orders. In fact, yeast is treated like a burn patient. That' s the whole ballgame. You' ve got to create a pure yeast strain.
Yeast is really easy to grow.
There are cryogenic vaults, where yeast is stored at minus-80 degrees Celsius. There' s an autoclave, a large pressure cooker that sterilizes beakers and other containers at temperatures of 250 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1997, he met Mueller, then a marketer for Genentech. In the mid-1990s, White served roughly 1 percent of U.S. brewers. Now, the figure is around 50 percent.