Ag-West Bio Invests in IntelliYeast, a Startup Helping Craft Brewers Brew Better Beer

Ag-West Bio is pleased to announce a recent undisclosed investment into IntelliYeast Laboratories Inc., a Saskatchewan-based biotech company that develops and commercializes yeast with optimized performance to brew better craft beer.

IntelliYeast CEO Christopher Eskiw is also a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources. He and co-founder Nicole Shoaf have turned his yeast research into viable new products to solve some common problems for Saskatchewan’s microbrewing community.

“We’ve developed proprietary methods for growing yeast that increase their viability and health,” says Eskiw. “We can speed up fermentations, cutting two or three days – a 15–20 per cent reduction – off a brewing cycle, which reduces labour costs and increases production.”

Kyle Adams, Ag-West Bio Director of Investment and Commercialization, says IntelliYeast is “exactly the type of company that Ag-West Bio is looking to support with an investment: They participated in the OPUS incubator at the University of Saskatchewan, they have good proof of concept & market traction, and founders with diverse skillsets. They are an innovative company doing all the right things, regarding both technology and business.”

Yeast production is underway, and the next step is connecting to brewers to provide one of IntelliYeast’s 200 strains of yeast, or to strengthen the house strains that microbrewers are already using. “Our product is available and we’re ready for market,” says Shoaf.

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