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(Courtesy Jackie O’s)
Athens, Ohio-based Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery has released a beer that’s a product of cross-cultural cooperation, Ohio University students, and a yeast that’s centuries old.
Here’s what we know…
A visiting professor from Quito, Ecuador, has teamed up with Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery and Ohio University students to create a beer using yeast discovered at an Ecuadorian monastery dating back to the 16th century.
“The beer, called 1556, was brewed by Jackie O’s employees using yeast collected and brought to life from brewing barrels at an Ecuadorian monastery that dates to 1566,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
The yeast was collected from a wood chip from the barrels by Javier Carvajal, a microbiologist and professor at Ohio University visiting from a university in Quito, Ecuador. The marketing campaign for the beer was developed by a class of OU students.”
Carvajal is not only a professor of biochemistry at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, he also owns a startup brewery in Quito. And in 2011 he harvested the yeast from old barrels at a local monastery that was started by a Franciscan monk from the Flemish region of Belgium in 1566.
The visiting professor/brewer then “reanimated” the yeast and the new beer which debuted at Jackie O’s on Halloween, is a tweaked version of a recipe that Carvajal found at the old Ecuadorian monastery.
And the beer with its ancient origins was given a modern marketing campaign by students attending Art of Craft Brewing at Ohio University, a class taught by Jackie O’s owner and OU assistant professor Art Oestrike.
Speaking with American Craft Beer Jackie O’s Adam Hoover described the “draft-only” 5.2% ABV release as “a smoky porter meets session stout” that’s medium-bodied yet surprisingly approachable. And it’s on tap now at Jackie O’s Brewpub and Public House.
