Brewing business: White Labs Inc. opens an Asheville location to supply East Coast craft beer brewers with yeast.

• Author: Saylor, Teri
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: LIFE SCIENCES HANDBOOK

Chris White was working toward a doctorate in yeast biochemistry at the University of California San Diego in 1991. He spent a lot of time in his lab, studying brewer's yeast, which is a good source of vitamin B and amino acids. It's a powerful fungus, and he wanted to know more about how it could improve heart health.

Five years later, White was a chemistry professor at the University of California Davis by day and a home brewer by night. He shopped for supplies at Homebrew Mart, which serves the San Diego home-brewing community. Because he was already making liquid yeast for his brewing, he began making more for the store's other customers. It was the start of something much larger.

White is president and CEO of San Diego-based White Labs Inc., where he combines his two passions--chemistry and beer. It's the chief yeast supplier for breweries across the U.S. and Europe. He estimates there are about 5,000 breweries and 10,000 home brewers in the U.S., and about 70% of them buy his products. He says 65% of clients are award-winning breweries.

In its early years, White Labs grew slowly, but White says business has doubled every few years since 2009. It's the country's largest liquid yeast producer and' has offices in Davis, Calif., Boulder, Colo., and Copenhagen, Denmark. It has a distribution center in Hong Kong.

White Labs opened its newest location in downtown Asheville in January. It will serve breweries east of the Mississippi River and eventually include a brewery that makes about 30 different beers, public tasting room and restaurant. There also will be a classroom, where White will teach classes on yeast and fermentation as well as home brewing basics. He believes having an educated client base enhances his marketability.

Even during the company's early years, White envisioned opening an East Coast lab. He considered locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But when the time came, North Carolina rose to the top. "I had not thought about the Southern states, but Asheville caught my attention when Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues and New Belgium located there. Then I noticed many other great breweries there and realized Asheville is an easy city to love." North Carolina is home to more than 130 craft breweries and brewpubs, and the industry makes a $791 million annual economic impact on the state, according to Raleigh-based North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild. Asheville was named Beer City USA four times.

Asheville officials offered White...