Beer Needs Yeast, Froth Needs You!

Project 2019-06-18 23:21:17 +1200

Water, Malt, Hops... Yeast? 🔬

Until now, NZ brewers have had no local yeast options, and have been forced to use yeast imported from far away places. Froth Technologies is here to change that, by launching Aotearoa’s first commercial yeast lab! But we need your help...

12 months ago founders Simon and Ryan recognized a gap in the local beer industry. Having been part of the NZ craft beer scene for nearly a decade, the boys knew first hand the challenges associated with importing yeast from overseas. 

Being a highly perishable product, liquid yeast requires expensive refrigerated air-freight, and is often not at its best by the time it gets here. There can also be timing and customs delays, with some overseas yeast labs no longer sending their product here due to these challenges.

With malt, hops, and water all world-renowned for their high quality, and able to be sourced locally, there was just one piece of the puzzle left to help take NZ’s brewing industry to the next level... NZ made yeast.

Yeast is a microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer, wine and cider and a major influencer of quality and flavour. 

So the boys have spent the past year making sure a local yeast lab was something that professional and home brewers wanted, through market research, focus groups, and lengthy conversations with brewers.

Fast forward to now, and Froth Technologies has set up a lab in the heart of Wellington’s brewing district, we’ve made yeast for four awesome breweries, we’ve been published in a couple of beer magazines, and now we’re looking to grow our production capacity to meet the demands of the already frothing market.  

😀 And that’s where you come in!

We need to raise a minimum of $30,000 so that we can purchase the production and technical equipment that we need to make enough yeast for everybody. Equipment like: 

• A cryogenic freezer (to store our yeast at -80C and hold it in suspended animation)
• A laminar flow hood (to allow us to expand our sterile working area for higher thru-put)
• A 1000L propagation tank (to grow larger batches of yeast)
• Analytics tools (precision equipment for guaranteeing quality and providing lab services)

🌏 Sustainability

Froth Technologies is acutely aware of the challenges we and our planet face, and we believe that business can be a great mechanism for levering positive change.

Froth Technologies is an impact business that cares about our ecosystem and the earthlings that rely on it. So we’ve developed a carbon reduction strategy, and we are working towards becoming a Carbon Zero certified company. 

We’ve also been busy innovating ways to make our packaging as low impact as possible. Thanks to some hard mahi and the help of a couple of other fantastic organisations we’ve produced these bottles to package our yeast in. They’re made from sugar cane and they sequester more than twice their weight in CO₂ over the lifecycle of their production. We’ve also sourced these incredible insulative boxes for keeping our yeast cold during shipping. They’re made from 97% sustainable paper, they’re 95-97% recyclable in kerbside recycling, and their thermal performance is comparable to polystyrene. 

🎁 Pledge Rewards

Rewards are expected to be delivered in October, once the campaign closes and the pledges are all paid. Yeast pitches will be delivered through Oct - Dec. Rewards are only available in NZ.

NZ Yeast Pledgers will be able to choose their strain(s) once the campaign has concluded.

Download our Yeast Menu [pdf]

👋 Our Team

RYAN CARVILLE
Co-founder / Left Brain  

Ryan’s studies in Philosophy and Religious Studies were always going to lead him to yeast…. After years of homebrewing and volunteering at beer festivals, Ryan took up his first commercial brewing gig at Eagle Brewing in Christchurch (2015). There he handled all aspects of the brewing process and got to engage with punters and the industry, working at every major beer festival in the country. Now that he’s in Wellington he spends his days (when he’s not Frothing) in at the Wild Workshop for Garage Project making all kinds of barrelled, funky, sour and spontaneously fermented brews. It's the intersect between art and science in beer that really gets Ryan going. He's a lover flavours and fermentation, flora and fauna, and thrives on problem solving and coming up with ways to do things efficiently. 🔗Ryan's Linkedin

SIMON COOKE

Co-founder / Right Brain  

Simon studied Graphic Design at Massey University in Wellington, where he founded the Massey University Brewing Society, and brewed his first commercial batch of beer (2012). The passion grew through teaching other students how to brew, and organising craft-focused events to engage them with the emergent beer scene. Simon then spent a couple of years overseas, brewing and exploring locations around Europe and Canada, and gaining a wider view of brewing knowledge. Following this he founded a contract brewing label, Kakariki Beer Co. to share his beer creations with a wider audience. More recently he’s been flexing his creativity and ideation in the startup scene, supporting social enterprises and impact businesses through graphic design, marketing, and events. 🔗Simon's Linkedin

🙌 Gratitude

Thank you to the Zero Carbon Challenge and everyone else that has contributed their time, expertise, resources, and support to this campaign. There are too many kind hearted humans & organisations to mention.

Campaign Video credit:

Camera & Director - Chris Cooke

Supplimentary Footage from Bryson Rooney (via Hāpi Research), also Gladfield Malt

Editing: Ezra McDonald

Post Production: Mikey Bucher 

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