In this study, we designed and used a natural culture medium, yeast acetaldehyde-diacetyl medium (YAD), that could mimic the synthetic YPG culture medium, to select yeast strains capable of producing high levels of diacetyl and acetaldehyde. Importantly, the sodium citrate, manganese and magnesium sulfate, which are part of the YAD culture medium, are consumed by the microorganisms during growth and biosynthesis, thereby rendering the YAD culture medium ‘natural’. For selecting yeast strains capable of producing diacetyl and acetaldehyde, we designed a culture medium with the following composition: 10 g L−1 dextrose; 50 g L−1 yeast extract; 5 g L−1 sodium citrate; 10 g L−1 whey powder; 0.05 g L−1 manganese sulfate; 0.2 g L−1 magnesium sulfate. The pH was adjusted between 6 and 7 using 0.1 N HCl. The culture medium was sterilized at 120 °C for 20 min, and this culture medium was designated YAD (yeast diacetyl acetaldehyde). The dormant yeasts were activated by inoculating them in standard YPG medium and transferred to YAD culture medium during the log growth phase by inoculating 5 mL of YAD culture medium with a 20% yeast suspension that was activated in YPG medium for 24 h and had an absorbance of 0.5 at 600 nm. The cultures were incubated at 30 °C for 48 h under static conditions in order to reduce the evaporation of volatile substances. After fermentation, the medium was filtered to remove cells and subjected to Gas chromatography for identification and quantification of acetaldehyde and diacetyl production.