The Beer That Takes You Back . . . Millions of Years

At some point back then, Cano began sipping about two ounces a week (the volume would increase as his age did) of Hatuey, a famous Cuban brand that Hemingway mentions in "The Old Man and the Sea."

"It was really refreshing and tasty," Cano recalls with relish. "Drinking two ounces a week in the warmth and the humidity -- there's very little better than a cold beer. Nothing better than a cold beer."

The memory of that taste spurred him to create Fossil Fuels even before his medical venture foundered; he figured he could coax a compelling taste out of a strange, primordial ingredient. The first version was made by a home brewer in 1997 and served at both the cast party for "The Lost World" (the second "Jurassic Park" movie) and Cano's daughter's wedding. But without a business plan, the company died out.

In 2006, Cano revived his ancient yeast and his company, with the help of fellow biologist Lambert, whose duplication of Cano's experiments gained them widespread acceptance. Lambert had a refined taste for hooch from his days as a lab director in Saudi Arabia, where the prohibition against alcohol led him to smuggle and culture his own wine and beer yeasts.

It's been on tap for two years at Stumptown in Guerneville, Calif., where the brew pub's manager, Deanna DeLeon, called it "yummy," then added: "I don't know -- I'm not a big beer connoisseur."

"I was impressed with the flavor that the yeast brought out," said Orvil Kirby, a patron who tried the wheat beer at Kelley Bros. Brewery, where it's made. "My first taste of it, I thought they might've added some cloves to the beer."

If Fossil Fuels enters the mainstream market, which it hopes to do soon, the beers won't carry funky names like other microbrews. The scientists went that route back in '97 with Stegosaurus Stout and Jurassic Amber Ale.

But "one thing people are skeptical about," Lambert says, is whether they're "gonna grow long scales if they drink the beer. Tyrannosaurus Pale Ale -- that was so intimidating and so dangerous as far as marketing that we decided to get rid of any association with 'Jurassic Park.' "

So the real-life scientists are crafting a new legacy, in what may be the first "Jurassic Park" sequel you'll actually be able to swallow.