Fullsteam wrangles Duke Gardens yeast for local brews

Eateries around campus might claim to offer a taste of Duke, but a local brewery is taking that expression literally.

Fullsteam Brewery, based in Durham, has created two beers made with wild yeast strains collected from plants in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Fourteen swabs were initially collected and then narrowed down to two healthy, viable yeast strains taken from lavender and purple Chinese lilac plants. Yeast ferments sugar, making it a crucial ingredient in beer by producing alcohol and adding flavor. Using this wild yeast to brew beer has brought Fullsteam closer to its goal of creating a beer completely comprised of local ingredients.

“At Fullsteam we really want to explore what it means to be a Southern brewery,” said Sean Wilson, Fullsteam owner and self-titled "chief executive optimist" who also holds a master's degree in public policy and business from Duke. “If you want a really unique taste of a place, that’s going to be in the single celled organisms that are everywhere in your local environment. The natural place to do that was in our backyard, the Duke Gardens.”

The quest to find a local yeast strain began in April by Fullsteam’s "yeast wrangler" Rachel Simpson. After swabs from a magnolia tree in Durham Central Park did not yield positive results, Simpson turned to Duke Gardens.

“I swabbed different flora that looked and smelled healthy,” Simpson said. “If there was any flower that was pollinating well or there were insects around I swabbed those too.”

Both beers brewed from the yeast were received positively. The first, a Belgian pale ale, debuted at the Washington Duke Inn Beer Dinner Aug. 13. The second, a sour, dry hops beer called Gose, was served at a beer dinner for Garland, an Indian restaurant in Raleigh, Aug. 24.

Simpson said the yeast gives off a citrus-lemon, floral flavor and she considered the pale ale to be a palate cleanser.

The beer that was produced using the wild yeast is not currently available in large quantities. Wilson says that next year he expects to have accomplished his ultimate goal—mass-producing a line of beers that is composed of seven ingredients from within 300 miles of the region. The key final component was the wild yeast taken from the Duke Gardens.