CONTINUOUS METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF A YEAST FERMENTED BEVERAGE

摘要

The present invention provides a continuous method for the production of a yeast fermented beverage, comprising the following consecutive continuous processing steps: a. mashing starch-containing and optionally malted raw materials with aqueous liquid; b. heat ing the mash and enzymatically hydrolysing the starch to fermentable sugars; c. removing spent grain from the heated mash to produce a mash extract, d. convert ing the mash extract into wort; e. removing organic volatiles from the hot wort; f. dilut ing the wort with additional water; g. feeding the diluted wort into a propagation vessel in which it is combined with a recirculated stream of yeast-containing residue and in which oxygen is supplied to initiate yeast growth; h. feeding the wort from the propagation vessel into a sequence of one or more fermentation vessels in which the yeast is kept suspended; i. feeding the fermented wort into one or more separators to remove a yeast- containing residue; j. recirculat ing part of the yeast-containing residue to the propagation vessel; and k. feeding the remainder of the fermented wort to subsequent processing steps; wherein the gravity of the mash extract is maintained at more than 22 ºP; the gravity of the wort is maintained at more than 22 ºP until said wort is diluted with additional water; and the gravity of the diluted wort is within the range of 10-35 ºP; and wherein less than 30 wt.% of the fermentable sugars in the mash extract and wort are derived from fermentable sugars added after hydrolysis of the starch contained in the mash. The present method offers the advantage that it is highly efficient in terms of energy consumption and extraction yields. Furthermore, it achieves extremely high productivity, especially in the operation of the brewhouse.