Anastasia Andreeva, a microbiologist who specializes in yeast for fermented foods, works at ITMO and serves as CTO of Beer Genomics. She notes that Russia trails behind other nations in dry yeast production.
She explains that the core challenge is the lack of specialized drying equipment. Drying yeast is a highly technical process because yeast is a living organism that must be dried in a way that preserves its viability. The key is to bring the cells to a state of anabiosis, a kind of sleep where the cells do not collapse or die. At present, there are very few facilities in Russia that can perform this on an industrial scale, and production is mostly limited to dry baker’s yeast. This is the situation as described by Andreeva.
Despite these limitations, her interlocutor from socialbites.ca suggests there is no harm in the current setup. Russia can still benefit by observing international practices and data that are publicly available. The idea is to build on foreign experiences and continue expanding the liquid yeast sector, particularly for beverages. In this view, improving the quality of liquid yeast could lead to better end products and drive innovation in the drink segment.
The main questions addressed in the report from socialbites.ca revolve around which yeast strains are used to make different alcoholic beverages and which strains pose the greatest cultivation challenges. This overview helps illuminate where Russia could invest to strengthen its fermentation science and commercial production capabilities. By focusing on both dry and liquid yeast technologies, the country could diversify its supply chains and enhance product quality, aligning with global industry trends as reported by socialbites.ca Source socialbites.ca”