Sam Adams brewery found a yeast that tolerated ethanol concentrations much higher. THey are making a spacialty brew that has alcohol concentration near what is found in distilled spirits.
Well, I don't know how well Sam Adams' yeast performs, but if the "superyeast" has a much lower activity than the typical 9% yeast, then the "superyeast" may actually be the worse choice when you offset the reduced distillation costs with the lost revenues due to the slower process.
What I wonder is if anyone is doing research into other types of yeasts. There may be something different from brewer's or baker's yeasts that ferments much faster to much higher concentrations but makes things taste bad, so it's largely forgotten. There would be less distillation costs, and since the solids would taste bad, drying costs to produce DDGS for feed would go away. If the increased production could offset the lost revenues from DDGS and the costs of disposing of the solids, then it might be a better choice.
