The GEA Group reports that sales of the GEA Craft Propagator, a yeast propagation system specially designed for small- and medium-sized craft breweries, now are underway. With production volumes ranging from 5 to 25 hectoliters, the propagator’s dimensions are adaptable to GEA’s brewhouse solutions CRAFTSTAR and COMPACT-STAR, which encompass brew sizes of 25 to 125 hectoliters, the company says. The GEA Craft Propagator, a smaller version of YEASTSTAR, which provides high capacity utilization with full automation, is designed for smaller budgets and smaller capacities and offers gentle homogenization, highly efficient aeration and adaptive temperature control, the company says. The system also allows for more spontaneity and experimentation via reduced automation while providing vital and highly fermentative yeast, it adds. 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 yeast cells. Unlike the YEAST-STAR, assimilation takes place directly in the propagator with adjustable temperatures and aeration rates. The propagator also can be used to store the yeast crop from the large fermenters until the next propagation, it says.

GEA Group
Peter–Müller-Str. 12, 40468
Düsseldorf, Germany
+011/49-211-9136-1503
gea.com