[8] It contributes to the fermentation of barrel-aged beers such as Le Coq Imperial Stout from Harveys Brewery in southern England.

Harvey's head brewer speculates that it is either airborne in the brewery or a slow-growing component of their house yeast blend.

[9] D. hansenii is also found in hyper-saline waters such as the salterns on the Atlantic coast of Namibia or in the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

[6] Growth rate increases in solutions with ≥ 1M NaCl or KCl, with sodium and potassium ions playing a very important role in the mechanisms involved in maintaining osmobalance.

[10] Most strains are haploid, mating very rarely and diploidize transiently by somatogamous autogamy (i.e. fusion of two cells but excluding their nuclei).