Encapsulated Yeast

A friend of mine who has a vineyard and winery in Lodi, CA just sent out his newsletter in which he discusses his use of encapsulated yeast for his white wines. He states this has been developed by a company in Portugal. They take a given strain of yeast and encapsulate it in a calcium bead. These beads are then placed in a close-knit mesh bag which is then placed in the fermenter with the juice. It is removed when the wine has reached the desired level of residual sugar. He says that removing the bag stops the fermentation and thus provides better control of RS in his white wines.

I had not heard of this before and find it to be an interesting technology. Anyone else know much about it?

Gary,
I know that it is used in sweet wine production but know little about that kind of wine making.
It is also used on stuck fermentations for dry wines, particularly when the alcohols are high. Some encapsulated yeast products are advertised to withstand solutions of up to 18% alcohol - frankly, I find that a bit optomistic but the point is well taken. If alcohol is killing off your yeast cells so that fermentation won't finish, call in these encapsulated yeast to get you to negative brix.
Of course, this is a new product and nobody really knows what the long term effects are - except perhaps with sweet wine production, where they seem to be used on a more regular basis.
Best, Jim

Encapsulated yeast does give the wine maker more control and also makes clarifying and ”cleaning” the wine a lot easier. Now depending upon which strain of wine yeast is encapsulated in the gel will make it suitable for either red or white, dessert or sparkling wine. I also believe that a MLB or LAB (Malo-lactic bacteria or lactic-acid bacteria) could also be encapsulated, so once the task of the organism is “done” it could be easily “arrested” and “cleared” out by simply removing the weighted “mesh bag”. Traditionally once the organism “completed its desired task” it’s the job of the wine maker to arrest their activity (sulfite the wine) and then get the yeast to settle to the bottom (fining agent) and rack (or filter) the wine off the yeast or bacteria (clearing the wine).

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... 13999/pg_1


Salute

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_2_86/ai_n12413999/pg_1

Very helpful article. Thanks.