Carlsberg Beer

Revolutionizing the brewing industry with research, innovation and sharing. In the old days, brewing beer was an unpredictable process that often resulted in undrinkable beer due to the phenomenon called ‘beer sickness’. However, in 1883, Emil Chr. Hansen, head of the physiology department of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, made a ground-breaking discovery that would revolutionize the brewing industry.

Hansen discovered that “bad beer” was not only a result of bacterial infection, as world famous scientist Louis Pasteur had otherwise assumed. Instead, Emil found that a certain amount of wild yeast in the pitching yeast made the ‘beer sickness’ break forth.

He then worked to isolate a single cell of good yeast and propagated it into a pure culture. Emil Chr. Hansen’s method on how to purify yeast made it possible to make quality beer from every brew and the new ‘Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis’ was used for the first time, and with great success, on a production scale in November 1883. 

As beer sickness was a widespread problem back then, Jacobsen gave the pure yeast away for free to other brewers.

Maybe J.C. Jacobsen knew the original could never be beaten or maybe he knew in doing so, there would be a little bit of Carlsberg in a multitude of beers. Regardless of his reasons, original Carlsberg yeast is used on most of the single lagers that are crafted today.