Success cases

Selection of a Wild Yeast for a Craft Beer

Cervezas Antiga is a Valencian brand located in the town of Catarroja that has been producing high-quality craft beers since 2014 and has won several national and international awards in specialized competitions.

For two years, the brewery and DARWIN worked on finding the wild yeast with the most organoleptic properties that reflect the character of Valencia.

Problem

During beer production, fermentation is especially important. The unicellular organisms involved in this process are yeasts. They feed on sugars and carbohydrates, transforming them into alcohols, esters, oils, and CO2.

The type of yeast added in the production chain is significant because it influences the type of beer that will be produced.

There are hundreds of different types of yeasts which, along with temperatures, time, and sugars, affect the flavor of the final product.

Industrial beers, due to the typically chosen yeast strains for their production, have a very similar taste and are difficult to distinguish from each other.

Solution

DARWIN proposed to Antiga to give their beer a more complex and aromatic profile. For this purpose, they selected native yeasts, conducted small-scale fermentation tests, and produced the selected one in the laboratory.

The wild yeast finally selected and produced in DARWIN’s laboratory gives the beer an organoleptic profile that is reminiscent of the city of Valencia, with natural orange flavor and aromas of rice and the damp earth of orange groves.

Completion Year: 2020

Success

Reaching the final yeast took two years, and both the master brewers of Antiga and the entire DARWIN team participated in this process.

Torna a València! was released at the end of July 2020 from the Antiga factory in Catarroja as a limited edition. It was available for purchase online, in specialized stores, and at the Barbacana restaurant in Valencia.