The use of active dry yeasts reduces the variety of strains that appear in spontaneous fermentation by outcompeting those strains that are naturally present.
Some breweries in Belgium, however, still rely on "spontaneous" fermentation for their beers (see lambic).
Lambic is a brew of spontaneous fermentation.
Souring may be initiated using yogurt, sour dough starter cultures, or by spontaneous fermentation.
Lambic is a wheat beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium (southwest of Brussels) by spontaneous fermentation.
Two other types of beer styles include beer of spontaneous fermentation and beers of mixed origin.
Beers of spontaneous fermentation are mainly produced in Belgium using wild strains of yeast.
In making these sweet beers, some brewers are said to use prepared yeasts rather than practicing spontaneous fermentation - the benchmark of a lambic beer.
Another and traditional way of starting a food fermentation is often referred to as spontaneous fermentation.
Jayer also invented a new technique called cold soak that is a pre-maceration avoiding spontaneous fermentation at temperature of about 10 C for 1-4 days.