Dear Marcela,

Are you asking about a specific reactor model or a general reactor, like CSTR/BSTR/PFR?

If the answer is the latter, then it depends on how much beer you want to produce.

Batch reactors, like BSTR, have a very simple equipment, flexible operation mode, low installation cost and are ease to shut down and perform cleaning, but you lose in productivity due to the time to load and unload the reactor, the reaction conditions change over time and they are inappropriate for large flows of feedstock.

CSTRs, on the other hand, have a great production capacity and have uniformity of product, but they require flow control and stability of microorganisms and unexpected breakdowns can be extremely costly.

So it really depends on how much beer you want to produce. If it is not much, go for the BSTR, they are much simpler.

Hope it helps.

Regards.

The BioFlo reactors from Eppendorf are great for this kind of process, but they are expensive...

The cheapest one is the best bioreactor as you are producing a commodity.

Beer fermentation is anaerobic process and the conventional method is submerged free yeast fermentation . You can try immobilized yeast processing in submerged system or on immobilized column.

I agree with the answer of Giovanna Lovato. It is very important what kind of beer you want to produce and what kind of yeast you employ (top fermentation or bottom fermentation). Also, fermentation mode governs the type of fermenter (batch fermentation, continuous fermentation) employed.

You can see that you have to determine more precisely what do you want to do at first. When it is clear what you want then you can start to think about what fermenter you would choose.

Best regards

Vit

For rapid fermentation of beer and the reactor system control strategy maximize the level of both higher alcohol and ester formation.

I agree with the answers given above.To add, there is also the existence of different features on the bioreactor to control the biochemical reactions occurring in the fermentor. For me, though you have to consider price,volume,yield, the best bioreactor is the one in which you could control the biochemical reactions easily and enables you to get a product of better quality.

One should realize that the final taste of the beer depends heavily on the rate of mixing (higher alcohols). Traditionally non-stirred vessels are used, with a peculiar type of mixing. Trying to use vessels of different shape failed because of a different taste. On the common large scale ideal (mainly gas) mixing (CO2) cannot be realized, which makes it difficult to produce the same taste at small scale and production scale. A major advantage of PFR and continuous operation is the small scale of the required bioreactors required in comparison with the non-stirred Batch reactors. If a new beer is to be produced that is a possibility, though the taste may be different from what is expected.

As of now stirred tank bioreactor is preferred in industry for fermenting purpose.

Generally, tubular towers (cylindrical, cylindro-conical) are used for ethanol and beer fermentation.

Ethanol fermentation have been carried out even in STRs and huge column reactors. So, if you are to attempt in lab condition, may be trying a larger capacity STR vessel should serve the purpose.

Try to use vacuum ethanol fermentation .yeast tolerate about 13 % ethanol to produce higher ethanol from yeast fermentation use vacuum system. This will allow you to continue remove ethanol from the fermentation and adding sugar and produce higher yieldf ethanol from one batch.