Harvest to Pour: Business of Beverages

Mara Young of Community Cultures: The secret ingredient to growing great cultures.

Episode Summary

Mara Young shares the exciting story of Community Cultures yeast lab. They started as a passion project, collecting yeast from Texas camping trips. Mara and her partner Rob experimented to find promising strains. Breweries got interested, and now they're a big company. Mara explains the hard work they do to turn wild yeasts into products and the challenges of a small budget. But she focuses on teamwork, using strengths and flexibility. Community Cultures keeps innovating for the industry. Mara's story is about turning curiosity into a business, and it's inspiring for entrepreneurs. Discover how they make unique flavors from native microbes and build a community through fermentation. Join us for this exciting journey!

Episode Notes

Key points and takeaways

• Community Cultures started as a passion project collecting wild yeast samples from nature
• It takes intensive process of isolation, identification, testing to develop wild yeasts for commercial use
• Organic growth from a small garage operation to a larger facility comes with challenges of limited budget
• Fostering team collaboration by playing to strengths and allowing flexibility is important for small businesses 
• Developing unique flavors from native microbes can attract or repel brewery customers
• Perseverance and pivoting ideas over time can turn curiosity into a successful business
• Support people by letting them grow into their positions. 

Community Cultures Yeast Lab

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1202 WEST ELSMERE PLACE, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 78201, 

 210-236-8351 

MARA@TEXASCULTURES.COMMUNITY

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Matthew Shipp

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