Beer will be brewed from native Hunter flora in a new project called "Wild Yeast Zoo" that aims to use untapped resources from the region's "tiny lifeforms".
The University of Newcastle project will be officially launched on Thursday at The Rogue Scholar brew-pub in Newcastle.
A beer, named Wild Scholar, was brewed to mark the launch of the project.
The project involves brewing sour beers with wild yeast collected from nature by microbrewers and ordinary people keen to become citizen scientists.
Dr Benjamin Matthews, of the university's creative industries school, said the project is looking for citizens to send samples using a collection kit that will be mailed to them.
"We will do some fancy science on the samples and try to identify usable yeasts that might be in them," Benjamin said.
"We'll do a bit of small-scale brewing with them to see if they produce an idea. If they do, we'll pass that on to our industry partner Rogue Scholar. They'll scale it up and see what can come out of it."
Benjamin said the team wanted to "tap into the potential in very tiny lifeforms" in the Australian environment.
"It's an untapped resource," he said.
People who participate will be asked to venture into areas of the bush that are off the beaten track. The aim is to find fruiting trees and bushes with berries, with yeast samples to be collected from soil and sap.
Plants won't be damaged in the process.
"Things like yeast thrive off the sugar found in the fruit. If they're sitting on the ground, they might already be fermenting to a certain extent," he said.
"You go up with a little vial, scoop them up and mail them in."
The question of whether the yeast will be useable is a "total lottery". "That's why the process is called bioprospecting."
Scientist Evan Gibbs said yeasts are prolific in the microbial world, which is why "you can start a sourdough mother just by putting a flour and water mix on your bench and waiting until it starts to ferment".
"Australian microbes are vastly understudied. We plan to map the yeast genomes for use in food science and the burgeoning bioeconomy," Evan said.
"A great place to start is the craft beer space. We have teamed up with Adam Hardy, owner and head brewer of Rogue Scholar brewery, to develop some tasty beers."
The project, which will use ethical business and sustainability practices, has funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and could help expand the understanding of biofuels.
The project aims to create a biobank of yeast for various uses.
"Brewing is just one possibility for the application. It might be things other than yeast that we discover. It could be any kind of microbe," Benjamin said.
"Yeast has a clear and obvious application to things like brewing and baking. It's easy for people to connect with that. It's a way to get into a conversation with a broader citizenry about these possibilities."
The researchers were inspired by the culture of small brewers making sour beers from wild yeast.
The project team aim to release a couple of successful beers that "people can enjoy and learn about the background story and potential held in these natural resources that surround us", Benjamin said.
The project involves a collaboration of academics in biology, genomics, law, ethics and media.
Twelve creative industries students worked on the project for three months, creating media to help launch the project.
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