Honestly not as strange as it sounds:
A local brewery went rogue to find yeast for a new batch of beer.
Rogue Brewery used a sample from the beard that Brewmaster John Maier has been growing since 1978.
As a joke, the brewery sent in the sample for testing. Then after hitting a wall while looking for a new yeast strain, they found out that the strain they had sent in was perfect for making beer.
Yeast is one of those ubiquitous organisms, and I imagine those who work with various strains of “domesticated” yeast in a non-laboratory environment, like bakers or brew masters might have their own body cultures be closer to those strains. I mean many of these yeast-using culinary traditions were started by simply exposing foodstuffs to the air, so why wouldn’t some be living in a beard?
Interesting gimmick too!
h/t Pissed
I saw this one, and thought you might like it, but hadn’t had the chance to forward it. Glad you heard about it anyway!
The Rogue Brewery is only about an hour from here, so we visit there from time to time. I’m actually looking forward to trying this one!
Last I heard, they’re still trying to decide what to name it. Considering they have an ale called “Dead Guy”, I’d be voting for anything that hints at its origins. “Bearded Ale”, “Graybeard’s Original”, etc.
There are many very strange ways that you can inoculate your beer. There are breweries in Belgium where they haven’t cleaned the cobwebs out of the corners for a hundred years, so that whatever yeast is living in the dust in the air is what starts the fermentation. Look up “spontaneous fermentation.”
Though I have to admit that beard yeast is pretty darn strange.