The YEAST Thread: What is? How to? Other resources.

I was reading an online article a long time ago from another even longer time past, when I began reading about the mysterious yeasts. It was mentioned sparsely and identified as a "super-bacterium." I went on knowing only these things from the brewers. It was only of late, where I began arguing with another barely-knows-something, who just read a book about making-your-own brewing with the little to no background on yeast work. He said it was classified with fungi, I said it is too complicated to store yeasts with fungi but I already knew he was right about it. I argued just to argue. Later came back and said I couldn't find a single reference to yeasts as "super-bacterium," any longer.

I know I read these somethings about yeast somewhere. Is this ancient writings of the past? Anyone have 'the yeast book' everyone should read before they open their mouth concerning yeast. I'm hardly a biologist, but I play one on tv.

I am a lab tech with a microscope however, and I don't like the idea of using wild yeasts vs. lab strains. I'm not that snobby but I like the idea of highly selected strains.

**As this thread matures I intend to edit this original post, for sticky purposes. Help us out**

There has been a lot of confusion about how to classify various types of microbiology over the years. Yeast is a fungi. It sometimes works with bacteria, but bacteria is in a different kingdom. For example in kombucha, they use a "mother", which is a SCOBY: Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.
John S
PDX OR

I don't have a yeast book but maybe you should get a syllabus for a university fermentation class. University of California is the leader in that field me thinks. If not you should be able to find a suitable book with google. I think strain maintainence is different for yeast than multicellular mycelium. Like I think it's more prone to just dying for no apparent reason. But I have a FOAF that works for wyeast labs, they do all the hard work for the brewers! Along with white labs. If you've ever been in a brew store those names should ring a bell.