Brewing A Bright Future: AB Mauri North America Acquires Omega Yeast Labs LLC

ST. LOUIS – AB Mauri North America has completed the acquisition of Omega Yeast Labs LLC, effective Aug. 14, 2024. Omega Yeast – a complementary business to AB Mauri’s business division, AB Biotek – is a leader in the craft brewing liquid yeast market in the United States, with locations in the Midwest and an employee count of nearly 50. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Omega Yeast’s research, development and production headquarters are situated within a state-of-the-art, 14,000-square-foot facility in Chicago. The company is widely touted in the domestic craft brewing segment for its robust innovation capabilities and novel, transformational yeast strains.

“The acquisition of Omega Yeast will further strengthen and accelerate our North American specialty yeast business for craft beer,” said Brent Fenton, president, AB Mauri North America. “This represents a unique opportunity to combine the global technology strength of AB Biotek together with a leading, high-quality liquid yeast producer here in the U.S.” 

Omega Yeast Labs has an extensive portfolio of yeast strains across a wide variety of craft brewing styles, from traditional lagers and ales to West Coast IPAs, hard seltzers, and beyond.

“Omega Yeast has supplied professional and home craft brewers across the country with leading liquid yeast solutions for more than the past decade since Lance Shaner and I founded the business in 2013,” said Mark Schwarz, co-founder, Omega Yeast. “We look forward to even greater days ahead under the AB Mauri and AB Biotek umbrella as we expect to grow our footprint in both liquid and dry solutions and build an even more robust portfolio of solutions to meet the needs of craft brewers today and tomorrow.”

The Omega Yeast brand joins AB Mauri’s iconic Fleischmann’s Yeast for baking and AB Biotek’s Pinnacle portfolio for beer, wine and distilled spirits as part of a boosted product lineup. The acquisition – along with AB Mauri’s recent investments in a specialty dry yeast plant in Hull, U.K., and a beverage applications center in Etten-Leur, The Netherlands – underscores a commitment to expanding and enhancing AB Biotek’s offerings in the beer and wider alcohol beverage market globally. 

AB Mauri North America is a baking technology company passionate about baking and driven to help customers achieve superior quality. Industrial and artisan bakers look to us for iconic Fleischmann’s Yeast, premium bakery ingredient solutions, exceptional process optimization and customized technical service & support.

About AB Biotek

AB Biotek contributes to the success of our customers through the delivery of superior technical service and fermentation expertise combined with quality yeast and technology solutions.  We have commercial scale yeast production capabilities – as well as research and development laboratories providing yeast and fermentation diagnostics – in locations all around the world.  AB Biotek develops specialty yeast solutions for a range of industries including consumer alcohol beverages – such as beer, wine, distilled spirits, seltzer and cider – bioethanol, and animal nutrition.

About Omega Yeast Labs LLC

We believe the best yeast is the freshest yeast. That’s why our Probrew pitches are always custom made-to-order, and delivered the date you need them. And Homebrewers can find a selection of our vigorously healthy yeast at a local homebrew shop near you. We believe experimentation, innovation and questioning the status quo, which is why we produce over 75 strains, including common workhorse varieties and several unique ones that you can’t find anywhere else. Our proprietary propagation method generates metabolically strong yeast cells, with consistent fermentation and optimized cell counts. As much as we love our yeast, we’re just as proud of our people and service. We promise to make it easy for you to focus on brewing because we’re always here for you. We’re here to help. 

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