Here we present a droplet microfluidics workflow for cell factory screening by yield of an intracellular product from isogenic microcolonies, i.e. minimal cell populations, encapsulated in picoliter droplets. This allows us to utilize all the benefits of droplet microfluidic screening in terms of throughput, but based on the signal from a population average, rather than the noisy single cell signal. We demonstrate microcolony sorting by integrated droplet fluorescence area of encapsulated E. coli, optimize triglyceride (TG) microcolony assay in droplets and apply the microcolony screening concept to analyze triglyceride (TG) production in S. cerevisiae.