immobilized yeast

[Rigsby 1]

I've been tinkering around with immobilizing yeast (lock it up inside alginate pellets) with some success so far.
I'm finding alginate very messy stuff!
Once locked in though, the clarity of the fermentation is quite startling.
Anyone else doing similar? - a search for alginate and immobilized doesn't show much. But I'm new here, and think I might not be searching correctly.

[NcHooch]

Perhaps you could elaborate ...

Does the fermentation take place while the yeast is locked up in the alginate? ....and if so, for what purpose?

[Rigsby 1]

This sort of thing:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV_oIuQEmGE
Thinking forward to encapsulating a mix of yeast, nutrient, malt extract (or molasses maybe) with alginate as above to make a beer for Scotch or Rum?

Early days... just wondered if anyone else is up to such things here?

[Rigsby 1]

Oops, should have added that the idea is to keep all of the particulate gunge inside the spheres, and all the solubles (flavors,alcohol) permeate through to the surrounding clear liquid.
My experiments show that you can also put sugar into the clear outer liquid and it will permeate through to the yeast. The alcohol produced inside permeates back into the surrounding, clear, liquid!
The skin of the alginate pellets acts as a semi-permeable membrane.... it lets the CO2 out too!

[Durace11]

So, basically a yeast ball that floats around fermenting the surrounding liquid in it's own enclosed enviroment? Sounds interesting. Would be great with a rare yeast strain you wanted to keep cultured. Probably a lot of work when using common bread yeast.

[Rigsby 1]

Ah, yes.
And don't forget that as the yeast cells grow and multiply, there is plenty of scope for selective evolution. New cells are generated all the time. Much faster than animal or plant lifetimes.
After some repeated usage, the innards of the marbles can be easily salvaged, given a good feed and an oxygen booster, and re-sealed in fresh alginate skins, with fresh nutrients.
I'm hopeful that over time, the yeast which survives best will be the yeast which performs best too.
Interesting Winter pastime!

Maybe we'll have to watch out for flesh-eating monster-yeast if they develop too far.........perhaps that's why cider-brewers are rumored to put a dead rat into the fermenter, to keep the yeast as vital and as happy as possible?

[mogur]

Here's a few links to catch up on this subject-

The use of polyacrylamide gel as opposed to calcium alginate beads-
IMMOBILISATION OF SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIASE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CA-ALGINATE BEADS FOR ETHANOL FERMENTATION WITH IMMOBILIZED YEAST
BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION BY CALCIUM ALGINATE-IMMOBILISED ST1 YEAST SYSTEM: EFFECTS OF SIZE OF BEADS, RATIO AND CONCENTRATION
ENHANCED PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL FROM FREE AND IMMOBILIZED SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE UNDER STATIONARY CULTURE
INFLUENCE OF ALGINATE GEL COMPOSITION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF AN IMMOBILIZED YEAST BIOREACTOR
THE MAKING OF POMEGRANATE WINE USING YEAST IMMOBILIZED ON SODIUM ALGINATE