In exciting news for the brewing industry, Perth-based Nail Brewing Australia was yesterday granted a patent for a magnetised fermentation process that could revolutionise the brewing industry.

Regular saccharomyces in beer

The new magnetised process can reduce fermentation and conditioning time from 14 days down to as little as six hours.

The processes’ co-developer, brewer John Stallwood, said his early results show the benefits aren’t confined to fermentation and conditioning, the pioneering process also appears to stabilise the beer and minimise the chance of bacteria infection and oxidation, which results in increased shelf life and improved product.

Magnetic induction requires the careful placement of magnets around the fermentation vessel. Ale brewing requires the placement of magnets near the top of the fermenter, while lager brewing requires bottom placed magnets.

Magnetised yeast cells

The result is to attract iron molecules within the cell walls of unicellular eukaryotic organisms inducing ethanolic fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae resulting in balanced implosions, accelerating their intake of monosaccharaides and the production of alcohol while eliminating many problems inherent in brewing.

The researcher behind the discovery, Dr Cindy Butcher from the Faculty of Magnetochemistry at the University of Western Australia, said the initial discovery was accidental.

“I happened upon the basic process by accident when I left a magnetic pulsometer next to a bottle-conditioned Nail Ale. Later when I drank it, the beer seemed much drier and more attenuated than normal – it seemed as if the yeast had reactivated and hyperfermented,” Dr Butcher said.

Hyper-saccharide inducing yeast post-magnetism

“I started playing around with John (Stallwood from Nail Brewing) and started to refine the process and everything just clicked into place like a natural reaction.

“The world of brewing will never be the same again.”

“Our tests show that the benefits of magnetised fermentation include a huge 98% reduction in beer fermentation and production time, minimised oxidation, improved filtration and improved shelf life.”

Nail Brewing Australia’s brewer John Stallwood said this is a great day to announce the patent.

“The beer industry is just the start but with a little further development I believe that this magnetised beer would also be suitable for internal combustion engines enabling cars to be run on it,” Stallwood said.

Dr Butcher at work in her ‘laboratory’

“Fifty litres of 4.6% abv fullstrength beer is expected to supply as much energy as 50 litres of unleaded petrol.

“Unfortunately the excise on fullstrength bottled beer is a ridiculous $1.45 per litre. This means the amount of excise in the price of beer amounts to more than the total cost of a litre of regular petrol. Magnetised beer would therefore be too expensive to use in cars for now.

“Excise almost makes craft brewed beer too expensive to sell to drink, let alone run a car on it.”