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Author Topic: Giga Yeast  (Read 9580 times)

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2014, 08:22:00 am »
I've also never heard of Giga. Looks like most of their yeast is cultured out of bottles/cans of commercial beers.
Why do you say that?

Most of the descriptions state the strain is from a particular beer or brewery. I guess they could be propagating from a WY/WL or BSI culture instead.
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Offline Stevie

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #16 on: March 25, 2014, 08:54:54 am »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

Offline blatz

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #17 on: March 25, 2014, 09:13:39 am »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

I don't think you can patent a living organism...
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Offline denny

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #18 on: March 25, 2014, 09:30:52 am »
So, you are saying that all my beers I ever brewed at home are infected with dog hair?

Two things I am suspicious about in a man. 1) If he doesn't drink coffee. 2) If he doesn't like dogs. I might forgive one of those. But I cross a man out of my books if he doesn't like either. Just sayin'. ;)

There was a famous homebrewing book by Dave Line where he said that if you homebrewed you had to get rid of your pest or all your beer would be infected.

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Offline Stevie

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #19 on: March 25, 2014, 09:39:40 am »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

I don't think you can patent a living organism...

See Monsanto

I'm not saying it's right, but it might happen.

Offline beerlord

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #20 on: March 25, 2014, 09:40:16 am »
My starter could have used a blow off tube!  Took off in 3 hours.
I'm pretty sure it's their version of WLP001 and I'm going to use it in a IIPA this Sunday. I made a 2L starter and split it up into 2 jars and will keep one jar for a future brew but will step up the other jar for the brew this weekend. I figure if I'm paying this much, I want to keep some around for a few more batches.
At this early stage, I'm happy with it so far. The true test will be when I drink the beer.

you did realize you were paying more because it was 200bn cells versus 100bn in wyeast or white labs, right?
Oh yeah I knew that and that's the reason I wanted a big starter so that I can store a few jars for the future.  I'm a cheapo.

Offline bluesman

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2014, 10:43:27 am »
I would like to give Giga's products a try sometime. I'll definitely try to keep up with reviews/opinions about their yeast. It's always tough being the new kid on the block, but sometimes the new kid can provide great ideas and experiences.
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Offline yso191

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2014, 11:14:14 am »
I just ordered a couple of packs of their "Vermont IPA" yeast.  Expensive, but if it is Conan no problem.  I've been wanting to brew with that yeast for some time. 

They don't allow retail sales from their website, so I went with their list of homebrew stores that sell their yeast.  Of the three that have online sales, one was on the East Coast, one was out of the one I wanted, so it is coming from Salt Lake, UT.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2014, 12:14:12 pm »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

I don't think you can patent a living organism...

See Monsanto

I'm not saying it's right, but it might happen.
You can't patent brewers yeast any more than you can patent corn.  Monsanto can patent GMO corn, but that's because they've actually added something to it and it is no longer just corn.  If a brewery created a GMO strain for brewing then they could patent that.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline Stevie

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Giga Yeast
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2014, 12:52:34 pm »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

I don't think you can patent a living organism...

See Monsanto

I'm not saying it's right, but it might happen.
You can't patent brewers yeast any more than you can patent corn.  Monsanto can patent GMO corn, but that's because they've actually added something to it and it is no longer just corn.  If a brewery created a GMO strain for brewing then they could patent that.

Would Amarillo be considered GMO? No DNA splicing was done to create it. Does selective breeding count as GMO? From my understanding, it was discovered by happenstance and just turned out to be awesome.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/PP14127

Edit -- I am asking these questions out of curiosity, not trolling.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2014, 01:13:36 pm by Steve in TX »

Offline weithman5

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #25 on: March 25, 2014, 02:34:27 pm »
So, you are saying that all my beers I ever brewed at home are infected with dog hair?

Two things I am suspicious about in a man. 1) If he doesn't drink coffee. 2) If he doesn't like dogs. I might forgive one of those. But I cross a man out of my books if he doesn't like either. Just sayin'. ;)

There was a famous homebrewing book by Dave Line where he said that if you homebrewed you had to get rid of your pest or all your beer would be infected.



my wife would be upset with me if i got rid of her.  and she enjoys my beer.
Don AHA member

Offline kmccaf

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #26 on: March 25, 2014, 02:42:47 pm »
I wonder when brewers yeast patents will come into the picture.

I don't think you can patent a living organism...

See Monsanto

I'm not saying it's right, but it might happen.
You can't patent brewers yeast any more than you can patent corn.  Monsanto can patent GMO corn, but that's because they've actually added something to it and it is no longer just corn.  If a brewery created a GMO strain for brewing then they could patent that.

Would Amarillo be considered GMO? No DNA splicing was done to create it. Does selective breeding count as GMO? From my understanding, it was discovered by happenstance and just turned out to be awesome.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/PP14127

Edit -- I am asking these questions out of curiosity, not trolling.

I am not a scientist, but my understanding is that Amarillo would not be GMO. GMO takes the genes from a different species and splices them with something else.  Amarillo is the result of different hop varieties breeding with one another.
Kyle M.

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #27 on: March 25, 2014, 04:47:22 pm »
I just ordered a couple of packs of their "Vermont IPA" yeast.  Expensive, but if it is Conan no problem.  I've been wanting to brew with that yeast for some time. 

They don't allow retail sales from their website, so I went with their list of homebrew stores that sell their yeast.  Of the three that have online sales, one was on the East Coast, one was out of the one I wanted, so it is coming from Salt Lake, UT.

Saw this today, another Conan spotting?
http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/vermont-ale

Offline el_capitan

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #28 on: March 25, 2014, 09:38:37 pm »
I was somewhat interested until I came to the part where they introduce their dog.  Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather get my yeast from somewhere that pets aren't involved.  The seem to say that the dog is confined to the office, but anyway...

So, you are saying that all my beers I ever brewed at home are infected with dog hair?

Yep, that's exactly what I'm sayin...  ;D  Nah, whatever.  I just thought it was kind of odd to see a yeast-propagation company with a brewdog.  I'm sure they keep him in the office and observe strict sanitation, yada yada yada. 

BTW, I do love dogs.  I taught my mom's little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel all kinds of tricks (including "slide," which is just what it sounds like).  I had to go with my mom a couple weeks ago to put her to sleep.  Really a sad day.  Anyway, brew on with your hairy selves! 

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Giga Yeast
« Reply #29 on: March 26, 2014, 01:12:13 am »
Would Amarillo be considered GMO? No DNA splicing was done to create it. Does selective breeding count as GMO? From my understanding, it was discovered by happenstance and just turned out to be awesome.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/PP14127

Edit -- I am asking these questions out of curiosity, not trolling.
No, amarillo is not GMO, but the result of breeding (accidental or otherwise).  You can patent breeds/strains so I guess you're right, you can patent a beer yeast.  I was thinking only of the current strains that are widely in use, which are not patentable (thus my corn analogy).

For creating a patentable strain there are some things you could do but most of them require genetic manipulation that a lot of brewers would probably not go for.  Obviously you can wait for natural mutations, and when you find a strain you like that reproduces without mutating further you can try for a patent.  But I think it would be hard to prove that anyone stole your strain of yeast without inserting markers into the genome.
Tom Schmidlin