Star Chemist

Here is a link to a KPBS video and article on San Diego's White Labs, the biochemistry firm that specializes in creating high quality yeast strains for the craft beer industry.  The link is a bit old, the original story ran in late March, but it is still worth the time to read the article and watch the video.  (NSFW warning:  the video contains excessive beer porn.)   White Labs dates to the mid-1990s, and its growth has matched that of the craft industry.  It supplies yeast to not only San Diego's and Southern California's brewers, but brewers across the country and internationally.  It has locations in four states, Europe, and Asia.  White Labs even brews its own beers to test first hand its varied yeast strains.  It has tasting rooms at its San Diego headquarters and its Boulder lab, where you can discern the sharp influence of yeast on a style of beer, holding all other ingredients constant.  A visit to a White Labs' tasting room could result in a beer geek mind implosion.