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Angel Yeast, a global provider of yeast and fermentation solutions, has commenced trial production at its new 8,500-ton speciality yeast facility located in the Baiyang Biotechnology Park within the Yichang High-tech Zone of Hubei, China.

This facility, which began material feeding on 31 August 2025, marks a significant expansion in Angel Yeast's capabilities, enhancing its full-chain production layout from research and development to large-scale manufacturing.

The new facility is designed to meet the increasing demand for high-value yeast-derived ingredients across various sectors, including craft brewing, wine production and bioenergy.

By enhancing the supply of specialty yeast, Angel Yeast aims to strengthen the biomanufacturing value chain and support producers in achieving improved yields and product consistency.

According to Qin Benguo, assistant director of speciality yeast production, the facility adheres to stringent microbiological standards, ensuring a contamination-free environment essential for high-quality yeast production.

The facility employs filtered air in pressurised feeding tanks to maintain a sterile atmosphere, allowing for the precise control of nutrient levels. The fully automated production line encompasses all stages from feeding and fermentation to packaging and storage, ensuring stable and reproducible quality.

Angel Yeast's specialty yeast is tailored for high-value applications beyond conventional baker's yeast, targeting segments such as craft beer, wine, fuel ethanol and biomass energy.

This focus enables brewers and bioenergy producers to enhance process stability and flavour consistency, critical factors for market innovation and expansion.

In conjunction with the new production facility, Angel Yeast has also launched its Brewing Functional Microorganism Pilot Test Platform. This platform bridges laboratory discoveries with industrial-scale validation, simulating real-world brewery conditions to produce reliable, data-driven results.

By addressing common challenges in on-line trials – such as variability in operator practices and timing – the platform offers a controlled environment for precise quality assessments and faster R&D iterations.

Luo Xinjie, director of brewing technical support at Angel Yeast, added: "Equipped with real-time monitoring systems, the platform allows us to track microbial dynamics and flavour compound evolution in a controlled, factory-like setting".

This technological advancement significantly reduces the time from research and development to market application, enabling breweries to access tailored solutions more efficiently.

The dual launch of the specialty yeast facility and the pilot platform positions Angel Yeast as a key player in the global biomanufacturing landscape.

The company's advancements are expected to facilitate greater innovation in brewing and bioenergy production, helping stakeholders achieve higher yields and enhanced fermentation stability.

In particular, Angel Yeast's solutions have already demonstrated success in the baijiu sector, where they have improved yields and enabled precise flavour control.