Laura Burns

You might be someone who avoids a bloated pack, but once it’s discounted, maybe it starts to look pretty good. Should you go for it? Why are some of us even suspicious of a swollen pack in the first place?

Incisive new strains can deliver something novel, or they can make something that already exists even better. In this series of articles, we look at modern strains through the lens of ​‘new’ or ​‘improved,’ deliver helpful takes on some yeast fundamentals (like esters, attenuation, and more), and finish with some juicy research: a new technology giving greater command of clarity and haze. Top Crop’s annual newsprint edition is available online or in print.

Using technique to improve clarity in your beers.

A more perfect system never existed for testing haze and flavor, thanks to the discovery of yeast’s hazy gene. In two brews differing only by the presence or absence of yeast-determined haze, blind tasters couldn’t pinpoint which was which. That begs the question, does haze contribute to flavor?

Since healthy yeast’s role in stable haze formation is a new concept, a lot of mysterious haze outcomes experienced by brewers can be helped via understanding yeast.

Yeast-derived haze can be substantial. How much has a lot to do with interaction with dry hopping. Here, see the surprising clarifying effect of an early-fermentation dry hop in a double dry hop scenario.

Omega Yeast can remove yeast-determined haze potential from a haze-positive strain at the gene level. Check out how Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist Brewery and Omega Yeast partnered to present experimental info on this topic for the 2024 Ohio Guild Craft Brewers Conference.

If you’re interested in brightness, it’s useful to know how a very low-haze-producing yeast strain can be made to produce even less.

Hop compounds are involved in yeast-determined haze, but they also contribute to haze independently. This graph shows evidence that hops have their own haze-determining factor.

Check out results in haze and clarity with two new categories of yeast strains (and how dry hop timing affects things). It may give you some great ideas on how to manage haze outcomes better in your brews.

There’s so much space for activities.

Know when to take the counts and what to do with that information.

You can remove the alcohol, avoid making it in the first place, or… a secret third option.

History plays a major role in beer style formation, but yeast predates all brewers and consumers.

Malt, yeast and hops all have important roles to play in different, cumulative sources of haze. Leaning on haze that forms in one way rather than another could make your beercraft significantly easier. It matters where the haze is coming from if you want to control it.

Getting the most out of your yeast, one generation at a time.

All flavors have a threshold of detection, but we can take that information and make even better use of what those flavors mean to us.

Three fermentations, two types of ALDC integration, like the Thunderdome but for lager.

Omega Yeast’s R&D director, Laura Burns, decodes some of the science behind this new discovery and what it could all mean for brewers.

Yeast will do what we want it to do, as long as we provide the right environment.