The East Bay beer that’s 45 million years old

Photo: Courtesy Fossil Fuels Brewing Company Fossil Fuels Brewing Company and Schubros Brewery to release saison...

Around 45 million years ago, a leaf became ensconced in a small chunk of Burmese amber. It was a mundane enough event at the time, until the piece fell into the right hands.

Today, through the scientific maneuverings of two very dedicated molecular biologists and a rather adventurous East Bay brewer, microscopic cultures within the amber are being crafted into — go figure — beer.

Dr. Raul Cano, a molecular biologist and retired Cal Poly San Luis Obispo professor, acquired the Eocene Epoch piece of amber in the early 1990s. He successfully extracted a yeast, and then managed to revive it from dormancy shortly thereafter. His achievement, however, was not met with universal applause. As supposedly the first person to pull off such a temporally irreverent feat, critics were naturally skeptical.

Another molecular biologist, Chip Lambert, was one such cynic. Hired by Ambergene, a company Cano helped found to pursue the study of such mycological discoveries, Lambert attempted to disprove these seemingly wild claims of reanimation. But things didn’t go exactly as Lambert anticipated; in following Cano’s method, he ended up corroborating Cano’s claims that an ancient yeast could indeed be revived.

In particular, one of Cano’s many discovered strains wound up being of the saccharomyces cerevisiae variety — or, as it’s more commonly known these days, brewer’s yeast.

“Once you’ve established that the yeast is saccharomyces cerevisiae, or a relative of it, you still don’t know if it’s a brewer’s yeast or baker’s yeast or what kind of yeast,” Cano says. “So then we actually tested them in the brewing process.”

The first batches brewed by the scientists’ newly founded company, Fossil Fuels Brewing Co., were rough. Cano and the independent brewers he brought aboard quickly discovered that such yeasts are difficult to use, unpredictable and, as brewer Ian Schuster put it, “high maintenance.”

“It needs to be roused,” Schuster says. “That’s the one reason why it’s been challenging and has different tastes at different temperatures. A lot of modern yeasts are like that, but this is much more.”

Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. and Schubros Brewery have released a saison brewed with a yeast strain that’s 45 million years old. Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. and Schubros Brewery have released a saison brewed with a yeast strain that’s 45 million years old. Photo: Courtesy Fossil Fuels Brewing Company Photo: Courtesy Fossil Fuels Brewing Company Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close The East Bay beer that’s 45 million years old 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Schuster is the founder of Schubros Brewery, a 5-year-old microbrewery in San Ramon where he makes a variety of beers, from IPAs to imperial stouts.

After hearing about Fossil Fuels from a chance encounter with a friend of Lambert’s, Schuster’s attention was captured. He was soon the third brewer to be given the chance to work with the yeast, and at the suggestions of his brewing team decided to use the rare material to craft a French-style farmhouse saison.

“Saison really came to mind because the yeast had this wonderful grapefruit essence to it that it imparts in the beer,” he says. “Some of the most amazing beer I’ve had, in terms of their light, crisp taste but also sophistication and layers, are Belgian and French farmhouse styles. We all galvanized around that thought.”

Photo: Courtesy Fossil Fuels Brewing Company A yeast strain found in this bit of amber that’s 45 million years...

The beer, excepting the yeast’s fickle nature, is so far coming along nicely, thanks in part to a well-devised recipe. Schubros and Fossil Fuels opted to frame the beer around the yeast, and to use English Golding hops to add an earthiness to the flavor.

The hops “play more nicely with the delicate flavors of the saison,” Schuster says. “We built everything around emphasizing the natural flavor of the yeast.”

And now, with their third attempt at bringing the beer to a broader market and aided by Schubros’ fermentation skills, Fossil Fuels Brewing is working smarter. The companies have set up a crowdfunding campaign to presell the beer (it’s slated for a December release) that they hope will fund the saison’s brewing process, with packages that will include bottles of beer, release-party tickets and brewing company swag.

All of this, they hope, will be enough to allow them to continue to make beer with this ancient yeast and at least one other “relatively younger” 25 million-year-old strain. The brewery’s future plans include a wheat beer, a pale ale and, with any luck, maybe even a stout.

In any event, Cano, Lambert and Fossil Fuels will continue their efforts to make their beer available to the public “until we die,” as Cano says with a laugh.

“We want to be able to develop recipes to maximize their character. It takes time, and it takes a lot of effort,” says Cano. “We’re committed — we’ve been at it for almost 20 years.”

Alyssa Pereira is a pop culture and beer reporter at SFGate and The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: apereira@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alyspereira