You Have Flies to Thank for That Pleasing Beer Smell

The familiar fragrance of your favorite brew is partly caused by aroma compounds produced by brewer’s yeast.

Now, researchers have figured out why the yeast even makes that smell to begin with: By mimicking rotting fruit, these single-celled organisms can attract fruit flies, which help disperse the cells when things get too crowded. The work was published in Cell Reports this week.

We’ve have been using yeast for thousands of years to make bread, beer, and wine. The microbes eat sugars and convert them into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol; yeast cells also contribute to taste. About 15 years ago, Kevin Verstrepen of VIB/KU Leuven in Belgium discovered that yeast cells produce several aroma compounds similar to that of ripening fruits, and one yeast gene in particular — called alcohol acetyl transferase, or ATF1 — was responsible for most of those fruity, volatile chemicals. It started with an accident…


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