Development of a self-starter system to bioreactor inoculation in craft breweries

• Grant number: 16/08334-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: October 01, 2017
• End date: June 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Karla de Melo Lima
• Grantee: Karla de Melo Lima
• Company: Karla de Melo Lima - EPP
• City: Campinas
• Associated researchers: Rafael Fernandes Godinho

Abstract

Although São Paulo concentrates the greatest number of micro and home brewers in the country, there is no one producing yeasts company in the State do supply this market. Currently, the yeasts used in the manufacture of beer are imported mainly in dehydrated form, or are available in liquid form supplied by 4 young companies active in the country located at Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Federal District. The dried form has many disadvantages with respect to their use, especially by the lack of infrastructure for hydration and spread in hygienic appropriate conditions by the final consumer. The net form requires a "cold chain" for the logistics of delivery, often compromised by the inefficiency of some traditional means of transport as the Post SEDEX besides presenting high cost, often more expensive than the product itself. This project aims to fill a gap in the supply chain for the beer market in the country, where demand is increasing significantly with the increasing number of micro-brews and the spread of home-brewers. The low stability of the yeast in liquid form limits their use by the final consumer if no efficient transport and low cost. Another problem is that the brewer has no infrastructure to set the density and correct viability of the inoculum after propagation, increasing the fermentation time due to an extended lag phase of microbial growth, increasing also the risk of contamination to the brewer wort which consequently compromises the quality of the final product not only by the risk of contamination with microorganisms harmful to health, but also affecting the sensory quality of the product with the generation of off flavors. The prior disclosure of our business strategy aroused great interest in the Brewers consulted. In order to solve this bottleneck, this proposal aims to provide a disposable fermentation system, standardized, with competitive price and that can be transported and stored at room temperature, where the brewer has in a single product, the tools needed to activate the yeast generating an inoculum with cell density and viability suitable for direct addition to the fermentation process reducing the lag phase time. The strategy adopted by GRANLEVEDO eliminates the aforementioned risks related to the quality of the beer. The product provides for different presentations to meet all the craft brewery market and microbreweries needs considering scales production from 20 up to 5.000L by batch fermentation. (AU)