The Most-Used Beer Yeast
Yeast is a living organism—a unicellular fungi, to be more precise. The majority of beers use a yeast strain called Saccharomyces. This translates from Latin to “sugar fungus.” It’s apt, given that the yeast that goes into beer looooooves sugar. Within that genera, there are two specific species of Saccharomyces yeast that get the most use: lager yeast and ale yeast.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a top-fermenting ale yeast, and most likely the yeast that brewers were inadvertently brewing with over 3,000 years ago. By top-fermenting, we mean that the yeast likes to rise up to the top of the beer as it eats (and creates alcohol, carbonation, etc.). Ale yeast also tends to ferment best at hotter temperatures, with most preferring temperatures between 50°F and 70°F—with some saison yeasts getting up into the nineties at the peak of fermentation. Ale yeasts are responsible for a huge range of beer styles like witbiers, stouts, ambers, tripels, saisons, IPAs, and so many more.
