San Diego-based yeast and fermentation company White Labs launched PurePitch Next Generation (PPNG) yeast today, a new packaged yeast product developed through feedback from brewers.
“This is a whole new system,” Chris White, founder and CEO of White Labs, told Brewbound. “It’s the same great yeast in a more usable format with lots of other technical additions.”
The new product launch stemmed from more than a year of beta testing with West Coast breweries, as well as breweries in Texas and Colorado earlier this year. The goal with PPNG is to create a product that is not only the highest quality possible, but makes the brewing process easier for brewers, according to White
“We wanted to be really patient and do a lot of beta trials with breweries,” White said. “We wanted to make sure we incorporated all the ideas with brewers before we introduce it to the rest of the world.”
One piece of feedback White Labs received was the need for a “cap” on packaging, allowing brewers to use the liquid yeast without requiring cutting the pouches open. PPNG packaging features a connectable port for close-system inline yeast transfers to prevent contamination, as well as handles for ease of use. The pouches also feature a more breathable two-layer film to reduce product inflation and maintain yeast health, according to White.
PPNG is now available in White Labs’ two most popular strains: California Ale Yeast (White Labs’ No. 1 strain) and London Fog Ale Yeast (White Lab’s go-to strain for New England-style IPAs). Each pouch contains 2.15 billion cells per mL, designed to deliver 7.5 million cells per mL for five hectoliters, according to White.
Each package of PPNG goes through 38 quality checkpoints, including a robust plating process and quantitative PCR (QPCR) tests to detect wild yeast and bacterial contaminants.
“We have lots of viability states,” White said. “We want yeast that’s not only the highest purity possible, but the highest physiology and the most robust cells, so we can ship them in not only the United States, but anywhere around the world and still get to a brewery with high viability and high vitality strength for fermentation.”
Each PPNG pouch includes a unique QR code which brewers can scan to obtain on-demand quality control data, including precise cell counts and strain-specific information, along with detailed usage instructions, according to White.
“These aren’t specifications; these are actual lab results,” he said.
The new line also comes with improved pitching rates, with an online calculator available for brewers that provides a customized recommendation based on a brewer’s intended beer styles, batch size, temperature and gravity.