Heineken H41

Lager yeast, Saccharomyces pastoriaus, has long been known to be a hybrid species with Ale yeast, S. cerevisiae, as one parent. It was only in 2011 that the other parent, S. eubayanus was discovered. A couple of years back Heineken started making a beer with a strain of this yeast and I finally got my hands on some recently. I was very curious to see how it tasted, after all, under the beers classified by their yeast system this is an entirely new kingdom of beer.

As it turns out, the S. eubayanus used by Heineken has a lot in common with other wild yeasts: it makes a spicy, phenolic flavour. So as far as flavour goes it's more like it's made with a wheat beer yeast than anything else. Not massively exciting, but I'm glad my curiosity has been satisfied at last.