Beer lovers, rejoice! The brewing process just got a whole lot faster and more efficient thanks to a team of innovative researchers who have created the ultimate brewing assistant: the BeerBot.
In a recent study, researchers revealed that these self-propelled, magnetic yeast packages could revolutionize the brewing process by making fermentation go faster and eliminating the need for filtering.
SAVONLINNA, FINLAND - MAY 25: Brewer Mika Kosonen samples a new batch of OTAN beer during brewing at the Olaf Brewing microbrewery on May 25, 2022, in Savonlinna, Finland. Olaf Brewing has launched OTAN beer to celebrate Finland's bid to join the NATO military alliance. OTAN is the French acronym for NATO and also means "I get" in Finnish.
BeerBot Speeds Up the Brewing Process
If you are not a brewing buff, here's the lowdown: the process kicks off by extracting sugars from grains, such as malted barley, to make a watery solution known as wort.
Next, yeasts are added to the wort to trigger the fermentation process, where the sugars are converted into booze, CO2, and fresh flavor compounds.
Unfortunately, this phase can take a whopping four weeks, which opens the door for pesky microbes to taint the tipple with some truly sour vibes.
This is where the BeerBot speed things up. The researchers managed to create a self-propelled bot that accelerates the fermentation process and streamlines the separation of yeast from the final beer by enclosing yeast in capsules made of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and sodium alginate, which are only 2mm wide.
By making one side of the capsules porous using an alkaline solution in an electrochemical cell, carbon dioxide bubbles can propel the capsules upwards.
Upon reaching the surface, the capsules release carbon dioxide into the air, then sink again, creating a captivating and efficient bobbing motion.
After using the magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and sodium alginate capsules to ferment malted barley wort, the research team observed that the self-propelled BeerBots processed sugars faster compared to free yeast cells.
Once fermentation was complete, the yeast-containing capsules sank to the bottom of the flask, allowing for easy separation of yeast from the final product using a magnet. This eliminated the need for the filtration process that is currently used to remove free yeast cells.
Active for 3 Fermentation Cycles
What's even more exciting is that the collected BeerBots remained active for up to three more wort fermentation cycles, which translates to faster and more efficient production of delicious brews.
With these BeerBots, beer lovers can enjoy their favorite brews in record time without sacrificing quality or taste.
The potential benefits of the BeerBot technology are vast. Not only does it speed up the brewing process, but it also simplifies it, making it more accessible to homebrewers and small-scale breweries.
The self-propelled BeerBots could also lessen the chance of spoilage, resulting in a more consistent and high-quality final product.
The findings of these robots were published in the journal ACS Nano.
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