Yeast immobilization: magic beans of fermentation

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So here's a thought (and maybe it was brought up but I missed it): if this immobilization technique greatly reduces ester formation, then does fermentation temperature control become far less critical? From what I've seen the immobilized yeast balls worked slower in side-by-side tests vs. normally pitched yeast at typical fermentation temperature...but what if you could run the yeast ball fermentation at ambient temperature--or even warmed, maybe even 90+°F?--and still get a clean flavor profile? I imagine it would HAVE to run faster at elevated temp?


I would think one plus down this line would be that you could ferment a beer in natural temperatures / without a fermentation chamber with less negative effect. This would be limiting in terms of style, but could benefit brewers moving into smaller spaces, etc.

I think it would take some exBeeriments to try to see how ester production would be affected.


Now that I've taken a stab at the process, I do need to go back and read the thread again. I forget how many questions were asked and speculated upon / answered. I will be bottling vs. kegging, and I'll be dry-hopping, so I imagine I'll have to rack off, dry hop, and somehow either maintain some yeast balls or make another batch for bottling and drop a few in each bottle.
 
I'm prepared to call my exbeeriment a relative failure.


Started picking up in activity some on Wednesday (brewday was Saturday). Even moreso on Thursday until I came home and it had reached the point it is still at now, pictured below. There's a fair amount of normal convective fermentation action now pushing sediment up and down through the beer. I guess it would seem over time, enough yeast escaped the blobs and I've more or less got a normal fermentation going.


By Wednesday, the yeast blobs did appear...a bit saturated? Might be nothing, but they looked a bit more sloshy to me. I think some have fallen down, hard to see the bottom of the carboy in my ferm freezer. By this morning a few smaller guys had made their escape out the blowoff tube. Here's hoping it doesn't blow!


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I am surprised I never posted on this thread as this technique is exactly how industry city distillery does their fermentation (basically a bioreactor with inline pumps)

Additionally, I would love to see how the IPA came out and if there were any clarity issues.

I will have to try the chitosan approach one of these days.
 
Additionally, I would love to see how the IPA came out and if there were any clarity issues.


If this was in regards to my IPA in the last few posts, it did turn out well, but I'd say the immobilization part was nil. A large amount of yeast escaped the beans - I had a large yeast cake on the bottom by the end. I'm guessing something was off in my measurements when making the solutions. You could see a number of the beans "torn" open by the end, even.


So it ended up just a "normal" beer, I guess. Clarity is good after cold-crashing in the bottle for a couple weeks, as with most of our beers.
 
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