Professor develops ‘micro winery’ that can make wine in an hour

An American professor has developed a miniature winery capable of producing wine within one hour to quickly test different fermentation methods and yeast strains.

Daniel Attinger, a professor at Iowa State University, developed the “micro winery” in co-operation with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), with the intention of helping winemakers better understand and improve fermentation and better the most appropriate yeast strains.

“Climate change is having an impact on the quality of grape crops around the world,” said Attinger. “Due to the heat, some crops ripen too quickly, the harvest takes place sooner and the wines end up with a higher alcohol content or a different taste. We need to find ways to analyze and adapt how the wine is made.”

Drawing on his expertise in multiphase microfluidics, Attinger came up with the idea of a micro-channel device that could quickly identify the best temperatures and yeasts for the fermentation process. Traditionally, yeast is added to full barrels of grape juice and left to ferment over 7 and 21 days.

Attinger’s device uses very small quantities of liquid and is able to produce wine non-stop at the rate of one milliliter per hour, allowing winemakers to test different fermentation processes and yeast strains quickly at less cost. Also, because the device is so small, the temperature can be increased or decreased very quickly allowing winemakers to test variants at a quicker rate.

“Let’s say a winemaker in the Lavaux region of Switzerland finds that a certain type of yeast or a certain fermentation temperature leads to an overly bitter wine,” said Attinger. “We could quickly test alternatives.”

The device has a main channel that the grape juice runs through, with yeast placed in adjacent compartments, which feeds into the main channel through a very thin membrane, comparable to “little tea bags”. When the grape juice reaches the yeasts, they absorb the sugar and give off alcohol and CO2 through the membrane. This process takes place very quickly, since the sugar and yeast are confined in such a small space. The use of compartments means that the fermentation process can be repeated very easily.