Have you ever sat down at a bar, ordered a beer, and thought to yourself, “Why do humans even have so many specific genes for breaking down alcohol?” This is what happens when a guy with a PhD in Molecular and Medical Genetics from OHSU starts making booze professionally. The answer, as it turns out, takes you a long way back in human history; our relationship with yeast (the organism that makes alcohol), predates human evolution.

At this Science on Tap, Dr. Kevin McCabe, Winemaker, Enologist, and Beekeeper at Double Strand Wine, will take you through the history of primate alcohol consumption, the importance of yeast and alcoholic fermentation to human history, and how early microbiology turned the tables on yeast and gave humans control over our boozy destiny.