Today in 2014, US Patent 8802421 B2 was issued, an invention of Chris White, assigned to White Labs, for his “Method of Propagating and Delivering Yeast.” Here’s the Abstract:
A method of propagating, concentrating and delivering yeast is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of producing and inoculating a bag, propagating yeast within the bag, and concentrating the yeast in a section of the bag that is the removed from the remainder of the bag while not exposing any portion of the yeast therein to an external environment. In order to remove the bag, which contains the most concentrated slurry of yeast, a smaller bag is heat-sealed off of the larger bag, thereby creating a separate bag for the living sediment, which is still the bag in which the sediment was propagated. In a preferred embodiment, the method is specific to the alcoholic beverage industry. The method is also applicable to other industries that grow and transport yeast, bacteria, molds and other microorganisms.
When Chris spoke at my SSU Beer Appreciation class last semester, he talked about his new innovation, which was patented today a year ago, and which they’re calling the “FlexCell Process” and marketing it as “Pure Pitch.” It’s a pretty cool idea.
And here’s a short video about the “FlexCell Process” from the White Labs website.