---
title: "The Origins of Lager Yeast and its Transatlantic Journey from South America"
description: "Yeasts are more diverse than we think; there are thousands of species and they inhabit almost all natural environments on the planet, being used in food production and/or to produce antioxidant compounds and sunscreens."
url: https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/the-origins-of-lager-yeast-and-its-transatlantic-journey-from-south-america/
date: 2020-02-07
modified: 2026-06-12
author: "Carlos Uhart M."
image: https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Hongo_Levaduras.jpg
categories: ["Culture"]
tags: ["Fermentation", "Lager", "Levadura de Cerveza"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# The Origins of Lager Yeast and its Transatlantic Journey from South America

By **(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110822151019.htm)**

Yeasts are more diverse than we think. There are thousands of species, and they inhabit almost all natural environments on the planet.

!(https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Hongo_Levaduras.jpg)*The origins of Lager yeast*

Among their uses and qualities, we can mention their importance in soy sauce production, their usefulness as a food additive, or their ability to produce antioxidant compounds and sunscreens.

However, there is one species of particular importance as the (https://www.thebeertimes.com/el-triangulo-amoroso-de-la-fermentacion-cerveza-vino-e-hidromiel/), for leavening bread, and for producing the biofuel ethanol; we are talking about Ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).

The most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, (https://www.thebeertimes.com/breve-historia-de-la-cerveza-lager-y-sus-diferentes-tipos/) (any of the industrial ones we buy at the supermarket), has been produced for over 500 years.

However, the origin of the yeast used for its fermentation was a mystery until very recently.

## From Ale to Lager, the mystery

Molecular genetics had already shown that Lager yeast is the result of the fusion of two yeast species considerably distant at the DNA level, as much as humans and chickens, for example, an almost inconceivable hybrid.

Although (https://www.thebeertimes.com/la-madre-de-todas-las-levaduras-lager-que-crece-en-los-bosques-de-la-patagonia-chilena/), one of the two species that gave rise to it (the “parental” species) was still unknown.

!(https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lager_vs_ale_diagrama.jpg)*Ale vs. Lager fermentation*

It was in 2013 when a team of scientists from Argentina, Portugal, and the United States, led by Diego Libkind, a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET), found in the Patagonian forests a yeast species that answered a nearly 500-year-old mystery: the origin of the yeast responsible for brewing Lager beer, the most consumed in the world.

Diego Libkind explains:

> Previous studies had shown that one of the protagonists of the fusion was Ale yeast, and that the unknown parental yeast was responsible for providing the hybrid with the necessary characteristics for fermentation at low temperatures, the hallmark of Lager production.

It took a team of scientists from three continents, hundreds of new (https://www.thebeertimes.com/los-genes-de-la-cerveza-artesanal/), and the latest DNA sequencing technology to solve the mystery.

After ruling out all known European yeasts, the team expanded their search across the planet and thus discovered a new yeast species for science in the forests of the cold Patagonian mountains that could be the unknown donor, (https://www.thebeertimes.com/la-madre-de-todas-las-levaduras-lager-que-crece-en-los-bosques-de-la-patagonia-chilena/).

This Patagonian yeast likes the cold, and initial comparisons yielded promising results.

The definitive confirmation came when (https://www.thebeertimes.com/tras-10-anos-investigaciones-logran-secuenciar-genoma-la-cebada/) (an unprecedented study for an Argentine yeast), and its DNA was compared with the mysterious half (non-Ale) of Lager yeast.

## Hybrid yeast

In this way, the researchers showed how the fusion of Ale yeast and the Patagonian species produced a hybrid yeast tolerant to low temperatures, considered a “proto-lager.”

The hybrid Lager yeast essentially began as an equal marriage between the two species, both contributing an equivalent number of genes (totaling over 10,000).

This cold-loving hybrid then evolved by the hand of man and (https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/what-is-beer-and-how-is-it-brewed-definition-ingredients-and-basic-processes/) into the modern Lager yeast used today in most of the world’s brewing industries, acquiring several genetic changes that modified its metabolism.

The researcher explains:

> These changes, resulting from multiple cycles of reuse and selection of yeast by brewmasters, helped the new hybrid adapt to the sugar-rich environment of fermentation and progressively generated (https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/westvleteren-12-quadrupel-the-legend-of-the-best-beer-in-the-world/).

He adds:

> The genetic changes detected by the research group involve improvements in maltose assimilation (the predominant sugar in wort) and an increase in the production of natural sulfites that stabilize (https://www.thebeertimes.com/introduccion-brettanomyces-en-la-cerveza/), thus contributing to creating the popular beverage we know today.

## From America to the breweries of Bavaria

The possibility of identifying evolutionary changes that arose during the domestication process of Lager yeast and of accessing the natural reserve of its parental species, unknown until now, promises to contribute to knowledge about the role of fermented beverages in human civilization and will provide new strategies for improving yeasts for beer and biofuel production.

The Lager process of slow, low-temperature beer production began in the caves and monasteries of Bavaria at approximately the same time that transatlantic trade began.

However, what is certain is that it found a way to reach the Old World, because if it had not reached the breweries of Bavaria and had not united with the Ale yeast present there, millions of Lager beer lovers would have been denied its characteristic clarity and refreshing malt flavor.

## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

### 1. Why is the genetic difference between the parental species of Lager yeast compared to the distance between humans and chickens?

The comparison with the evolutionary distance between humans and birds is used to illustrate the biological anomaly that this hybrid represents. In the fungal kingdom, the two yeasts that merged to give rise to Lager yeast have a divergence in their DNA sequence of approximately fifteen percent. To put this in perspective, the genetic difference between a human and a chimpanzee is barely one percent. The fact that two organisms with such a level of genetic separation managed to unite and generate functional, highly efficient offspring completely changed the paradigms of molecular biology.

### 2. What specific metabolic property did the Patagonian yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus contribute to the new hybrid?

The critical contribution of the Patagonian species to the genetic marriage was cryotolerance, that is, the ability to remain active and metabolize sugars at extremely low temperatures, between four and ten degrees Celsius. Traditional Ale yeast loses its ability to work and enters a state of latency when the temperature drops. By inheriting the cold resistance genes from Saccharomyces eubayanus, the resulting hybrid was able to colonize the winter fermentation tanks of Bavarian monasteries, giving rise to the cold maturation process that defines Lager beers.

### 3. How did the intervention of medieval brewmasters help domesticate modern Lager yeast?

The evolution of yeast from a wild proto-lager to the current industrial strain was unconsciously guided by brewers through a technique called repitching, which consists of collecting the dense layer of yeast from the bottom of a finished batch and seeding it into the next wort. This cycle repeated for centuries acted as an artificial selection filter. The yeasts that survived and multiplied were those that mutated to tolerate higher alcohol concentrations, assimilate cereal maltose more quickly, and produce natural sulfites that protected the beer from oxidation and aging.

### 4. What is the most accepted historical theory about how yeast traveled from the Patagonian forests to the monasteries of Europe?

The exact mechanism of transport remains a subject of scientific debate, but chronological coincidence points to the beginning of transatlantic trade in the sixteenth century. It is postulated that the microscopic cells of Saccharomyces eubayanus could have traveled attached to the bark of native woods imported from South America, on the footwear of navigators, or even in the digestive tracts of insects present on merchant ships. Upon reaching European ports, the microorganism found a nutrient-rich environment in brewery facilities, where it eventually came into contact with local Ale yeast.

### 5. What organoleptic differences does the use of this hybrid yeast generate in the final profile of a Lager beer compared to an Ale?

Lager yeast works through a slow, low-bottom fermentation dynamic, producing a radically different sensory profile from that of an Ale. When operating at low temperatures, the hybrid metabolism almost completely suppresses the production of fruity esters and spicy phenols, which are the compounds that provide banana, apple, or clove aromas in Ale-type beers. The result is a liquid of extreme aromatic purity, an exceptionally clean profile, and a crystalline character where the true protagonists are the noble flavor of hops and the pure notes of barley malt.

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