National Geographic, February 2026

Now that beer is a multibillion-dollar industry, the biochemistry is more important than ever—to keep the taps flowing, but also to try to get ahead of a growing concern. People just aren't drinking as much alcohol as they used to. The solution just might be in a bottle in the laboratory of Kevin Verstrepen, a Belgian geneticist and director of the Leuven Institute of Beer Research. He’s an expert in yeast—in using it to untangle the basic molecular genetics of life and its evolution, but a...