It is one of several members of the genus "Brettanomyces", a genus first isolated in 1889 by Seyffert of the Kalinkin Brewery in St.Petersburg as a ""Torula"" from English beer which produced the typical "English" taste in lager beer. In 1899 JW Tullo at Guinness described two types of "secondary yeast" in Irish stout. However N. Hjelte Claussen at the Carlsberg brewery was the first to publish a description in 1904, following a 1903 patent (UK patent GB190328184) that was the first patented microorganism in history. The isolation of an organism derived from bottles of traditional English beer was described and therefore the name "Brettanomyces" was chosen, from "briton" for the British origin and "myces" for the characterisation as fungus. Despite its Latin species name, "B. bruxellensis" is found all over the globe. In the wild, it is often found on the skins of fruit.