Yeast... part three

For officers only! Relevent history and facts about the growing, harvesting, fermentation, distillation and aging of Cane Spirits. Master this section and you master rum. Otherwise just masterbate...
Post Reply
User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

Yeast... part three

Post by Capn Jimbo »

It was long ago, on a dark and stormy night...


I hope you find this brief history of yeast as fascinating as I did.

The precursor to yeast was found in prehistoric times when flowering and fruiting plants evolved a strategy to spread and flourish. What later became what we call yeast was an organism that "ripened" the fruit/flower and added a bit of sweetness attractive to animals. The animals would eat these, and just like the Frozen One, poop the seeds out down the road and voila!

Propogation of the species, or in the case of our frozen friend, marketing copy.

These early organisms also propogated themselves - the "mother" cells budded a single "daughter", getting the energy to do so by using oxygen to break the sugar down into carbon dioxide and water (releasing needed energy). This, by the way, is how we humans gain energy as we break all our food down - exhaling the CO2 and peeing away the water.

Later, these cells evolved even further by getting their energy by turning the sugar into aldehydes and then into alcohol. This was evolution at its best because the alcohol, at a certain level, was poisonous to these cells competitors. A win/win for these cells.

Even later, the "mother" cells then budded two "daughters", who had added capability to turn some of the alcohol back into aldehydes, releasing even more energy, and thus the ability to reproduce even more rapidly, kinda like a Mormon polygamist.

Bless them!

So there we are. These ancient precursors to yeast would jump on any available fruit, quickly convert the sugar to CO2, water, and lots of alcohol - eliminating their competitors - then save themselves and continue propogating by converting the extra poisonous alcohol back to aldehydes.


Now here's the fun part!

Turns out that the natural limit of natural production of alcohol in fruit is about 4 to 5% - found in most of the fruits available to our ancestors - apes, prehistoric man, and even a few desperate wolves. Thus the appreciation of sweetness and the inherent, naturally fermented alcohol is built into our ancient genes. The fruit was good nutrition, gave us a mild buzz, and we gladly and poopingly spread the good news.

The fruit won - the ancient yeast won - and we won. Cheers for poop!
Post Reply