Researchers in Belgium say they’ve come up with a way to make beer taste better.  Or if you already like beer, taste EVEN better…

For centuries, breweries would let it ferment in big, open vats.  Then in the 1970s, almost all breweries switched to closed, pressurized vats, because it was a lot cheaper and easier to make big batches. One side effect though was the flavor.  The yeast couldn’t really stand up to the pressure, and it made the beer taste slightly worse.

The new study eliminated that side effect by finding the gene in yeast that creates a, quote, “banana-like flavor” responsible for most of the flavor in beer.  Then they genetically modified it to stand up to the pressure of a closed vat.

They say it means that pretty soon, beer might taste better, or closer to what your grandparents were drinking. 

Sources: American Society for Microbiology / Study Finds