How can continuous fermentation of beer offer advantage over batch process fermentation?
In general, a continuous process will have a higher yield and better efficiency than a batch process. But I’m a little confused. A stirred tank reactor with continuous input & output will yield a product with unfermented raw materials in the beer. I don’t think that’s a good thing. I think the key is using a process vessel with a residence time sufficient for fermentation, and a low flow rate through the vessel to promote laminar flow (ie minimize turbulence). I think the quality control and consistancy will be hard to achieve in a continuous fermentation process. The variations in yeast, raw materials, temperature, etc, may make this difficult to put into practice, resulting in unpredictable labor and production costs, and changes in output. I hope that helps. I’m not sure it’s on point with what you want, but it’s not a simple question. If it were, the major breweries would have gone to this process a long time ago. .
