An assessment of commercially available yeast strains from various alcoholic beverage industries: Suitability for Scotch whisky fermentation and influence on new make spirit character.

Amidst the rise in craft distilling, there has been a movement towards bringing fermentation more into the spot-light. This can be seen in both the craft and greater sectors of the distilling industry, be-it through the isolation and utilisation of proprietary yeast strains or the use of different commercially available yeast strains and/or species for whisky production.
From a knowledge transfer partnership between the Port of Leith Distillery and Heriot-Watt university, a number of commercially available active dried yeast strains were assessed for the production of desirable flavour and aroma compounds in Scotch malt whisky fermentations and their influence on new make spirit character.