History of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been widely used by humans for thousands of years and is arguably one of the most important microbial species in human history. Archaeologists have found evidence for the production of a fermented beverage in China at 7000 BC, and of wine in Iran and Egypt at 6000 BC and 3000 BC.

Archaeological evidence of brewing activity was found on Sumerian tablets dating to about 1800 BC although the origins may well go back to around 10 000 years ago. The text found on these tablets sings the praises of the Sumerian goddess of brewing in the ‘Hymn to Ninkasi’. Since that time, mankind has discovered that the goddess that caused the ‘magic’ is in fact the living organism, yeast. Ancient brewers domesticated yeast due to selection of the best fermentation agent.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a robust yeast that is capable of withstanding stressful conditions and has a high fermentation efficiency, rapid growth, effective sugar use, the ability to produce and consume ethanol, tolerance of high ethanol concentrations and low levels of oxygen, osmotolerance, thermotolerance, and cell activity in acidic environments, which are fundamental to its industrial use-fullness.

The genus and species names, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also can be traced to earlier origins. Saccharomyces means sugar mold or fungus and cerevisiae has its origin in the Gaelic word kerevigia and the old French word cervoise.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek described yeast in 1680 with the aid of handmade wax globules, whereas Charles Cagniard de la Tour reported in 1838 that yeast was responsible for alcoholic fermentation. By the end of the 19th century, improved strains were selected by the use of pure culture technique.

Whilst it is also useful for raising bread, producing fuel, and expressing desirable engineered proteins, it was the demand for alcoholic beverages that motivated the scientific study of yeast by Pasteur (1897) and the Carlsberg Research Laboratories (1896). Since then Saccharomyces cerevisiae has achieved a second distinction: it is the best understood genetic model organism. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the first eukaryote to have its genome completely sequenced.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Invention of Beer

Invention of Beer
The first alcoholic beverage was either wine or beer. Although wine apparently originated in Babylonia, it seems that beer or “wine made from barley” was also known at the same period, as early as 6000 to 5000 BC.

One early method was replaced barley in a pottery vessel and then bury it in the ground until it began to germinate.

Then it was milled, made into dough and baked. The cake could then be taken as a lightweight item on travels and when stopping at an oasis for water it would be soaked until fermentation began.

The very acid tasting beer was known in the 20th century AD as “boozah,” apparently the origin of the English word with a similar meaning.

Records of beer being served have been found in Babylonia as early as 2225 BC and both the Egyptians and the Babylonians used beer as a medicine.

The Greeks imported the concept of barley beverages from Egypt.

Since few physical remains or artifacts survive from the beer making process, very little is known the diffusion of beermaking. Scattered literary references help document the fact that beer of different varieties was widespread throughout the ancient world, including frontier regions and among peoples generally regarded as beyond the fringes of civilization.

By the end of the classical period, in the fourth century AD beer was known throughout northern Europe. Varieties included mead, which involved a fermented mixture of honey and water in Britain.

Another type was metheglin, mead with herbs added to it. A dark beer, similar to modern porter, was in use in Britain even before the Roman invasion, and in the 1st century AD the Irish had developed a local beverage similar to ale.
Invention of Beer

Beer In Ancient Egypt

Food History
For the ancient Egyptians also, beer was the preeminent beverage and was more popular than water, which often was contaminated; and although beer had a lower social status than wine, beer was a necessity for the household and the kitchen. Brewing was the woman's task, as it was in Mesopotamia.

The divinities presiding over it were goddesses and some kind of chief brewer.According to Egyptian religious tradition, Osiris, the god of agriculture, taught the people to prepare beer. The Greeks connected Osiris with Dionysus, the wine god, who in turn was associated with the earlier Thracian god Sabazius.

The connection between the Egyptian people, beer, and their gods—for instance, Hathor-Sekhmet—was very close.

The intimate relation between baking and brewing in Egypt and in Mesopotamia is supported both by the use of the Sumero-Akkadian word lahamu, originally meaning "loaves", to indicate brewing and by the constant association of baking and brewing in Egyptian art. "Bread and beer" was the symbol of food and a greeting formula.
Food History