Ancient civilisations in the Middle East, Mediterranean and South America realised the benefits of allowing sugar-containing liquids to ferment. Early brewers declared that 'God is good' when referring to the 'miraculous' transformations that accompanied fermentation. It wasn't until Louis Pasteur's seminal investigations of the mid 1800s, however, that yeast was given the credit for conducting the process that had hitherto been ascribed to divine intervention. Not long after, Emil Hansen of the...