• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

GEA designs new yeast propagation system specifically for craft breweries

November 13, 2018Pretty Much a Press Release

GEA Craft Propagator

Just in time for the BrauBeviale, GEA is completing the development of the GEA Craft Propagator, a yeast propagation system specially designed for small and medium-sized craft breweries. With production volumes from 5 to 25 hectoliters, the propagator’s dimensions are adapted to GEA’s brewhouse solutions CRAFT-STAR and COMPACT-STAR (25 to 125 hectoliters brew size). The official sales launch is scheduled for 2019.

Yeast management for the craft market

Yeast is the most important component in beer production, influencing taste, quality and filterability. This makes it all the more important to select the right strain, maintain and propagate healthy cells and utilize the surplus yeast. In order to handle the increasing number of varieties available on the market, technical automation has intensified in recent years.

But this is exactly where craft brewers have different ideas from larger breweries:

“With the GEA Craft Propagator we are responding to customer inquiries from the craft sector. We have converted our successful YEAST-STAR, a solution for high capacity utilization with full automation, into a little sister version,” says GEA Product Manager Torben Bauch. “Designed for smaller budgets and smaller capacities, it offers the same functionality as the YEAST-STAR™: gentle homogenization, highly efficient aeration and adaptive temperature control. However, it allows for more spontaneity – more experimentation via reduced automation. “All in all, we implemented a leaner design and a manual mode with some high-tech features.”

How it works

The propagator is equipped with a recirculation pipe, an internal aeration system and a sterile air measuring unit. During the propagation phase, the yeast cells in the reaction tank are intensively supplied with oxygen in order to keep them in a state of aerobic metabolism – thus stimulating rapid growth of the yeast cell population. For best fermentation results, the yeast must be in the logarithmic growth phase exactly at the moment when it enters the fermentation tank. For this purpose, the tank is automatically aerated and the required propagation temperature is maintained. Unlike the YEAST-STAR, assimilation takes place directly in the propagator. Temperature and aeration rate are completely adjustable.

Halloween beer fun: We rank the brewer’s yeasts that are most likely haunted

To start the process, the cold wort is pumped from the wort cooler through the existing wort line between brewhouse and cold block into the reaction tank. The yeast suspension is then added from a Carlsberg flask with sterile air. The circulating pump ensures proper mixing and homogenization of the yeast suspension during the entire process. Aeration is performed via a vertical lance in the cone. The nozzle flow supports the homogenization effect. After propagation, the yeast suspension is introduced into the wort line with the circulating pump for filling the fermentation tank.

“We have designed some of the functions for manual operation and provide a control system tailored for this purpose. On the one hand, this matches the target group’s budget and on the other hand, corresponds to the way craft brewers want to work: No craft brewer wants to simply press display buttons and have the feeling that they are not able to intervene. Here, for example, the brewer is given the opportunity to activate the cleaning-in-place (CIP) manually,” says Bauch.

Craft brewers do not always add the yeast at the same point in time during the fermentation process, so it the goal here was to make sure the yeast be in top condition after propagation – highly vital and ready for fermentation. In addition, the propagator can conveniently be used to store the yeast crop from the large fermenters until the next propagation. Then all that remains is to cool and recirculate to keep the yeast in suspension: The yeast metabolism then goes into a kind of hibernation.

GEA is currently working on further options, including a stand-alone CIP unit for breweries that do not have a CIP system.

2019.08_GEA at Brau_GEA AromaPlus De-Alcoholization Unit_copyright Mike Henning_Nutzungsrechte GEA _2_-001
BrauBeviale preview: GEA explains its next-generation, scaled-down equipment fit for craft breweries
Pittsburgh-Brewing-Co-GEA-Group-Photos-88_building
Pittsburgh Brewing builds out its own brewhouse with GEA
GEA’s AromaPlus PRO reduces water usage in dealcoholization
White Labs’ Aseptic Transfer System is a safe, clean and efficient in-line, closed yeast transfer solution

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Shot and a beer: Bulleit Frontier Whiskey and Stone Brewing announce partnership
  • Lone Tree Brewing is a brewery that gives back
  • Local Time Brewing is set to open in Holly Springs, NC, in 2023
  • Olde Mecklenburg Brewery has a newe look

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • madtree-HangerCheers to 10 Years: MadTree Brewing keeps growing and giving a f#ck
    February 7, 2023
  • Michigan’s Short’s Brewing down 10% overall vs. 2021, but its Local’s Light lager is up 10%+
    February 6, 2023
  • Arizona Wilderness BrewingCheers to 10 Years: We should all strive to be Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.
    February 2, 2023
  • Watch famed gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman discuss his Flying Dog beer labels
    February 2, 2023
  • Michigan’s Dog Star Hops wins Chinook Cup for second year in a row
    February 1, 2023
  • fort point both-ciders-3Fort Point Beer debuts cider line, explains why ciders instead of seltzers
    January 31, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC