Measures to improve long term stability of main fermentation with immobilised yeast

Abstract

Although immobilised main fermentation has clear advantages, insufficient long-term stability of product quality is the main reason that it is still awaiting its breakthrough. Therefore immobilised main fermentations in pilot scale with varying reactor types, carrier materials and aeration rates were applied in order to evaluate measures to improve long-term stability. A comprehensive set of data including beer analyses, taste testing and analyses of yeast vitality during fermentation was collected. It is shown that long term stability is manageable, and a toolset of technological measures is presented to overcome the existing limitations of this technology.