The two-millimetre-wide robots are made of iron oxide and contain yeast to supercharge the fermentation process (Picture: ACS Nano 2023/Dr. Pumera/SWNS)

Researchers believe so-called BeerBots can speed up the brewing process.

Dr Martin Pumera, of Czech Republic’s Brno University of Technology, and colleagues wanted to develop a self-propelled bot to both make fermentation proceed faster and simplify the separation of yeast from the final beer.

Reporting in ACS Nano, the team shows that these self-propelled, magnetic packages of yeast can make the fermentation phase go faster and cut out the need to filter the beverage.

The two-millimetre-wide robots are made of iron oxide and contain yeast to supercharge the fermentation process.

When they have finished their mission of swimming around in the fermenting container they can be removed with a magnet, avoiding having to add a filtering process.

These self-propelled, magnetic packages of yeast can make the fermentation phase go faster (Picture: ACS Nano 2023/Dr. Pumera/SWNS)

The beer fermentation process can take as long as four weeks. During that time, unwanted microorganisms can get in and spoil the final product with sour flavours.