Magical Device Produces a Constant Supply of Wine

Daniel Attinger, a professor of
mechanical at engineering at Iowa
State University, is working on
developing a tiny device that produces
a continuous supply of wine. Bless
you, Daniel Attinger.
Attinger, along with a team of
researchers at Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, a Swiss
research institute, hopes the micro-
winery will aid wine experts in
advancing their knowledge of the
fermentation process. Fermentation,
as a press release from the EPFL
explains , is highly important to the
flavor profile of wine— different
strains of yeast produce different
notes .
Attinger’s device is intended to help
winemakers play with various
fermentation processes. Its theoretical
benefit comes in its speed and size—
it’s able to continuously produce
about one milliliter of wine per hour.
(Regular fermentation processes can
take roughly two weeks .)
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It works like this:
The device has a main channel
through which the grape juice
winds its way. The yeast is
placed in adjacent compartments
and feeds into the main channel
through a very thin membrane
with holes called nanopores. It’s
almost as if they were in 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.
Philippe Renaud, the head of EFPL’s
microsystems laboratory, noted that
the magical contraption could be used
for home brewing, but added, “that’s
more of a gimmick. It uses a
simplified process and the result is
currently not as good as normal wine