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01 December 2017

Craft brewer sues supplier over allegedly contaminated yeast

Following an USD two million recall of its Milk Stout Nitro and IPAs last year, the Coloradoan craft brewer Left Hand Brewing is suing its yeast supplier, local media report.

The lawsuit was filed in the Boulder District Court by Indian Peaks Brewing – which does business as Left Hand Brewing – on 14 November 2017 against White Labs.

Founded in 1993 in Longmont, a city 50 km northwest of Denver, Left Hand produced an estimated 90,000 hl beer in 2016.

The lawsuit alleges that “contaminated yeast product supplied by White Labs caused secondary fermentation in beers brewed using that yeast, including Milk Stout Nitro, resulting in over-pressurized bottles, broken bottles, off-flavours, and disruption of the distinctive nitrogen cascade.”

The lawsuit said the contaminated yeast required Left Hand to issue recalls for the stout, Extrovert IPA and Warrior Fresh Hop IPA and destroy thousands of barrels of unpackaged beer. Left Hand also had to shut down its brewery for two weeks and disassemble its equipment to clean out the place.

Milk Stout Nitro is the company’s flagship beer, with the beer making up about half of its sales historically, according to the lawsuit.

The company said that an investigation discovered that the beer was contaminated by a strain of wild yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. diastaticus that is known to cause secondary fermentation in beer.

According to the lawsuit, Left Hand was able to trace the source of the wild yeast to White Labs.

“It is unfortunate we had to file a lawsuit, but we didn’t have a choice,” Eric Wallace, co-founder and CEO of Left Hand Brewing, was quoted as saying.

White Labs said: “The case, which is being defended by our lawyers, claims that Left Hand Brewery received a batch of contaminated yeast from us in 2016. There is no specific proof of where the contamination originated from, as each White Labs culture undergoes a rigorous testing process from start to finish, which includes 61 quality checkpoints throughout the propagation cycle. Additionally, every batch of yeast is tested to confirm it is contamination free prior to shipping. We cannot provide further comment due to the ongoing litigation.”

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