Currently, beer is one of the beverage products with the largest annual production worldwide of 1767 million hL in 2007 alone, with lager beer production accounting for 90% of the total beer produced. The present drivers for technological improvement in brewing are increased industrial competition and consolidation, constant demand for increased productivity and flexibility, and the need for achieving high quality together with low costs and compliance with environmental policies. Using metabolic engineering strategies, improvements in the brewer's yeast fermentation performance has involved increased attenuation rate, improved control of the production of beer flavor metabolites, increased ethanol yields and osmotolerance for high‐gravity beer fermentations, and reduced ethanol yield for low or zero alcohol beer production. With the availability of the
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
genome sequence, together with the bioinformatics tools enabling integration and interrogation of large
x‐omics
data sets, it is possible to identify high‐probability targeted genetic or metabolic strategies to increase yield, titer, productivity, and/or robustness of the existing brewing process. As the use of GMO strains in brewing is not accepted, mutagenesis remains the alternative approach for obtaining brewer's yeast variants with superior performances. However, the use of enzymes, often products of genetically modified strains, for brewing process optimization is currently recognized. As brewing is a product‐based process, introduction of new technologies for process optimization such as high‐gravity brewing and continuous fermentation using immobilized yeast in brewing lead to improved economics without change in the product characteristics and quality.
