Tag Archives: yeast

Original Lager Beer Yeast came from South America, not Germany! Proof that Vikings made it all the way to South America?

Researchers from around the world have been looking for the source yeast used in Lager beers.  They found it, in Argentina!

Germany has laid claim as the creator of lager beers, more than 600 years ago.  But scientists realized that the yeast used, Saccharomyces Pastorianus, is not native to Bavaria.

Scientists combed five continents, and found only one source of origin: Patagonia, Argentina.

Now the question is how did Europeans get the yeast?  After all the first German Lagers were created decades before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.   Could it be those daring Vikings who got to North America 400 years before Columbus, made it all the way to South America, then back to Europe?