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Although first isolated in 1889 and again in 1899 by scientists at Guinness, the discovery of ''Brettanomyces'' was first publicly published by Hjelte Claussen in 1904 after he cultured it in 1903 from English beers that exhibited a sluggish secondary fermentation <ref>[http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/06/when-was-brettanomyces-discovererd.html "When was Brettanomyces discovererd?" Ron Pattenson. Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog. 06/29/2013. retrieved 08/18/2016.]</ref>. At the time of discovery, Claussen was aiming to recreate the flavor profile of traditional English ales by fermenting them with pure cultures of ''Saccharomyces'', and either pitching pure cultures of his newly discovered ''Brettanomyces'' yeast along with ''Saccharomyces'', or as he preferred, after the primary fermentation of ''Saccharomyces'' <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/download/448702618652516/GB190328184A.pdf "Improvements in and connected with the Manufacture of English Beers or Malt Liquors and in the Production of Pure Yeast Cultures for use therein." Patent application by Hjelte Claussen for ''Brettanomyces''. A.D. 1903.]</ref>. Although Claussen saw the character from ''Brettanomyces'' as a desirable character in ales and identified its character as a quality of traditional English ales, at some point ''Brettanomyces'' became identified as a contaminate in wineries and breweries due to some of the phenols, acids, and haze that it sometimes produces. These phenols and acids have generally been described as "barnyard", "burnt plastic", "wet animal", "fecal", and "horse sweat", although some tasters describe these flavors with different terminology because they percieve certain flavor compounds differently while some other tasters simply cannot detect certain flavor compounds at all <ref name="smith_divol_2016"></ref><ref name="Schifferdecker">[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/yea.3023/pdf The wine and beer yeast Dekkera bruxellensis. Anna Judith Schifferdecker, Sofia Dashko, Olena P. Ishchuk, and Jure Piškur. 7 July 201.]</ref><ref name="Lucy_2015">[http://www.ajevonline.org/content/66/3/379 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Aroma-Active Compounds Determined by SPME GC-MS Olfactory Analysis. C.M. Lucy Joseph, Elizabeth A. Albino, Susan E. Ebeler, Linda F. Bisson. 2015.]</ref>. The general viewpoint of brewers (other than Lambic and Flanders red/brown brewers in Belgium) and vintners that ''Brettanomyces'' is primarily a spoilage organism held for many decades, and still holds in most cases. More recently the positive flavor components that have been identified in ''Brettanomyces'' beer such as pineapple, stone fruits, and to some degree acetic acid, have regained popularity with brewers outside of Belgium. Wine tasters have also described wines with certain flavor compounds derived from ''Brettanomyces'' as positive characteristics of wine. It is important to keep in mind that individual tasters on tasting panels describe some flavor compounds as "negative" while others describe them as "positive" (and sometimes a mixed response is given by a taster in regards to a certain flavor compound), and this discrepancy in interpretations of ''Brettanomyces'' derived flavor compounds appears to be based on personal preference and experience. In some cases, for example for vinyl phenols, low levels that are not detectable by some people, but detected by others contributes positively to wine, while higher amounts contribute negatively. Thus, lower intensity of some flavor compounds can be seen as more desirable. Overall, the enjoyment or displeasure of the various flavor compounds produced by ''Brettanomyces'' and at certain levels is completely subjective <ref name="Lucy_2015" />.

The morphology of ''Brettanomyces'' can vary immensely from strain to strain (and species to species). Some strains can look similar in size and shape to ''S. cerevisiae'' under a microscopic image, while others are elongated or much smaller. This makes it difficult to identify ''Brettanomyces'' without DNA analysis. Morphologies of ''Brettanomyces'' grown on agar plates can also be different from strain to strain. For example, Devin Henry found that a sample of WLP648 that contained two closely related strains of ''B. bruxellensis'' grew completely differently on the same growth media. At first, larger, slightly off-white colonies grew on the plates (this was the first strain), and then a few days later the second strain grew as many smaller white-colored colonies. Other strains may appear as glossy or matted with jagged edges, etc. Morphology on agar plates can change depending on the type of growth media <ref>[http://brettanomycesproject.com/dissertation/analysis-of-culturability-on-various-media-agar/morphological-traits/ Yakobson, Chad. "Morphological Trains". Masters Dissertation. 2011. Retrieved 05/12/2017.]</ref><ref name="bryan_vrai" /><ref>[https://eurekabrewing.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/brettanomyces-bruxellensis-microscopy-pictures/ Samuel Aeschlimann. "Brettanomyces bruxellensis microscopy pictures". Eureka Brewing blog. 03/12/2012. Retrieved 05/12/2017.]</ref>.