NL8800175A - Alcoholic drinks obtd from plant juices - by clarifying and micro-filtering juice, making starter culture with minor amt. of juice, adding bulk juice, and fermenting - Google Patents

Abstract

Alcoholic drinks are made from plant juices contg. at least one fermentable sugar by (a) adjusting an expressed plant juice contg. 80-230 g/litre of fermentable sugars to a pH of 3.5-4.3, sulphiting the prod. and clarifying it to remove all suspended material coarser than 1 mm; (b) subjecting the clarified juice to microfiltration over a membrane with a porosity of 0.2-0.45 micrometres and dividing into two parts, a larger part and a smaller part; (c) pre-fermenting the smaller part by aerobic growth of a selected yeast; and (d) adding the starter culture to the greater part of the micro-filtered juice and carrying out alcoholic fermentation at 20-28 deg.C under a CO2 atmos.

Description

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Process for preparing alcoholic drinks from plant juices.

This invention relates to a method for preparing alcoholic beverages from the juices of at least one type of plant.

The most commonly used plant juice for obtaining an alcoholic beverage by alcoholic fermentation is grape juice. To convert the grape juice into wine requires a whole range of techniques.

After the harvest, the grapes are brought to a cellar where they successively undergo various treatments under which one gets red, white or rose wine. These operations can be divided into three parts: a mechanical treatment of the harvest, the fermentation, and the storage and maturing of the wine.

The purpose of the mechanical treatment of the harvest in the case of the preparation of white wine is to reduce the chance of exchange between the solids (stems, skins, seeds) and the liquid. For the preparation of white wine, the light or dark grapes brought to the cellar are therefore immediately pressed after they have possibly gone through a zip-off device. The slightly sulphated must may have been clarified before subjecting it to fermentation.

This clarification consists of removing coarse impurities (soil, organic debris) from the must before fermentation. That means that the juice thus obtained could contain solids before the fermentation starts.

Another commonly used plant juice for obtaining alcoholic drinks is that from sugar cane obtained by straining and then leaching sugar cane. That dilute juice, which contains about 70 g per liter of sugar, is fermented and then distilled to give agricultural rhum.

Such rhum has the special feature of having a relatively high nonalcohol content. The non-alcoholic denomination generally includes all volatiles other than .8800175 * - 2 - <* ethanol, such as aldehydes, esters, higher alcohols, furfural, volatile acids, etc. Even the "slightly" named rhum species always have a non-alcohol content above 60 g per hectolitre of pure alcohol, at least according to the applicable 5 French regulations.

Unlike grape juice, the sugar cane juice has not yet been fermented as such to produce an immediately consumable wine with 10 to 11% by volume of ethanol in an industrial manner.

10 Finally, there are other vegetable juices, such as the juices of various vegetables, tropical fruits and other fruits, for example melons, apricots, mangas and pineapples, which, although very rich in aroma, are not used for the production of wine by fermentation because 15 which has not yet been able to control fermentation and which leads to the development of bacteria at the expense of alcoholic fermentation by yeasts. The latter, on the other hand, are actually used as unfermented drinks.

There are therefore now clearly distinguishable uses of plant juices. The object of this invention is to create a new line of application which, starting from plant juice sufficiently rich in sugar, leads to new alcoholic drinks. Under "plant juice" one must obtain each juice from a single type of plant, such as the reed, but also juice obtained from a combination of plants such as reed and grapefruit, reed and pineapple, grape and one or more vegetables, etc.

By "new alcoholic beverage" is meant a beverage with new organoleptic properties which are attractive for a statistically significant part of the consumers.

On an oenological level, it is not yet possible to characterize the wine by its composition, because it is far too complicated. In fact, about 500 ingredients have been identified in grape juice.

The solution of the problem posed leads to a method for preparing alcoholic beverages from a plant juice which naturally contains at least one fermentable sugar, characterized in that 40 a) one takes a plant juice obtained by extracting 88001 75

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- 3 - pressing of at least one type of plant with a fermentable sugar content of between 80 and 230 g / liter, the pH of which is adjusted for sulphitization and subsequent clarification between 3.5 and 4.3, with clarification of all suspended dust 5 is removed coarser than 1 mm, b) that the clarified juice is microfiltrated over a membrane with a porosity between 0.2 and 0.45 µm and divided into two parts: a larger part and a smaller part, C) pre-fermentation is carried out in the smaller part by aerobic cultivation of a suitable yeast, d) the larger part of the microfiltered juice is added to that pre-fermentation and the mixture is stirred under a carbon dioxide atmosphere at a temperature between 20 and 28 ° C. C performs an alcoholic fermentation.

This method has the advantage of being strictly controlled and thus permitting good reproducibility. The pH is preferably controlled between the above-mentioned limits by adding one or more of the organic acids customary in food or of a strongly acidic fruit juice, in particular the juice of lemon or grapefruit (grape fruit). Microfiltration over a membrane with a porosity between 0.2 and 0.45 µm is one of the essential features of this method. After this microfiltration, the juice is free from suspended particles.

Surprisingly, the absence of solid particles in the filtrate results in an alcoholic beverage with new organoleptic properties. A large part of the flavors seems to be bound to cell fibers which are removed by microfiltration.

In addition, after squeezing, juices of any consistency can be added together, which makes it possible to develop new organoleptic properties starting from only those ingredients that pass through the membrane with a porosity of 0.2 to 0.45 µm. This is of great importance for the juice of the sugar cane, because most of its rather coarse taste is bound to the cell walls of the reed and does not end up in the filtrate.

The constituents of the filtrate are finally converted under the influence of yeast into compounds which give the obtained beverage their own special note.

In addition, microfiltration over a membrane with a porosity of 0.2 µm has the property of removing all endo-5 gene bacteria and yeasts from the filtrate and thus making the plant juice sterile. That porosity of 0.2 µm is therefore preferred in the method according to the invention over any other (greater) porosity.

However, it is also possible to use a membrane with a porosity of 0.45 µm that allows passage of some micro-organisms, in particular small bacteria. This need not be disturbed because these few micro-organisms are inhibited by the low pH of the medium and by the presence of sulfurous acid. As an additional precaution, waiting for the pre-culture to grow, most of the filtrate can be cooled. The major part is then brought back to temperature before adding the pre-culture. This addition leads to an enormous preponderance of the selected yeast which inhibits these micro-organisms, already small in number.

Thus, the organoleptic result of the method according to the invention, which produces products of which the juiciness and the sour, bitter, sweet and salty flavors suit each plant, is very different from what one would get if one took vegetable aroma extracts after the would add fermentation.

As the content of fermentable sugars is sufficient, the alcoholic fermentation can be carried out to an alcohol content between 2 and 14% by volume of ethanol. A higher x content of fermentable sugar can lead to an alcohol content of y vol.% If the yeast does not lack vitamins and nitrogen compounds in the anaerobic fermentation. If necessary, biotin and ammonium salts are added to the juice for the fermentation. The fermentation can be broken down between 2 and 35% by volume by removing the yeast or by pasteurizing.

In order not to experience an uncontrolled loss of taste and / or uncontrolled metabolism of the yeast, the fermentation takes place in a closed vessel at a controlled temperature, preferably between 20 ° and 28 ° C. The closed vessel makes it possible to keep at least part of the carbonic acid formed in solution, so that the drink becomes effervescent.

The general method according to the invention, in which the vegetable juice contains or is pressed juice from sugar cane and in which the fermentation is continued to its natural end, gives an alcoholic beverage of 10 to 11% by volume of the type of white wine with low content to non-alcohols, which can advantageously be distilled / rectified to give an alcohol of 92 to 96% by volume with a non-alcohol content below about 40 g per hectolitre of pure alcohol. By diluting that alcohol, one obtains a natural sugar cane spirit with new and very pleasant organoleptic properties, always with a very low non-alcohol content, even when compared with a light rum.

The features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the description of the following examples; the description of example 5 will be made with reference to the accompanying drawing, which shows an apparatus in which the method according to the invention is applied.

Example 1

Preparation of sugar cane wine.

Pre-washed and dried sugar cane was squeezed with a single pair of rollers to give a juice with a specific gravity of 1.75 containing 175 g / l of fermentable sugar and having a pH of 4.85.

11 hectoliters of that juice were taken and the pH was lowered therein to 4.21 by adding 275 g citric acid and 275 g tartaric acid. This juice was protected from oxidation and from microbial aging before clarification by adding 55 g of SO2. The juice was then centrifuged in a centrifuge at a flow rate of 15 hectoliters / hour to remove all the material suspended therein coarser than 1 mm, and then the juice was subjected to a flow rate of 10 hl / Imeca in a device. hourly tangential microfiltration over a mineral membrane with a porosity of 0.2 ƒ1111.

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2 hectoliters were taken from this microfiltered juice and inoculated with 40 g of yeast Saccharomyces g cerevisiae containing 4.10 cells per cm 3. When the yeast in that juice was in its growth phase and showed a concentration between 7, 5, 10 and 10 yeast cells per cm3, the major part of that microfiltered juice (9 hectoliters), which had meanwhile been stored under aseptic conditions, was added. Thus, the pre-culture volume was about 22% by volume of the main portion of the microfiltered juice.

10 (Instead of the 22%, any value between 10 and 25% by volume can be used). Finally, 275 g of ammonium phosphate was also added.

The actual fermentation then began in a vessel with a thermostat such that the temperature therein remained between 20 ° and 28 ° C until the fermentable sugars were exhausted. The alcoholic fermentation thus carried out thus continued to its natural end.

The fact that the tub was closed but not completely closed makes it possible to maintain a carbonic acid atmosphere on the surface of the must.

A determination of the sugars showed that the fermentation could not continue. 88 g of SO2 were then added to protect this alcoholic beverage from oxidation and bacterial aging.

The analysis of this product gave the following results: - pH = 3.57 - alcohol 11.6% by volume - lactic acid absent 30 - volatile acids corresponding to 0.27 g / l 2 SO 2.

Example 2

Preparation of an alcoholic beverage from sugar cane juices and green lemons.

juice pressed from sugar cane, identical to that of example 1 (i.e. with a SG. of 1.075, a pH of 4.85 and with 175 g / l fermentable sugars) was acidified to pH = 4.3 by adding 0 per hectolitre. Add 5 liters of green lemons juice. The resulting mixture then underwent exactly the same treatment as in Example 1.

The analysis of the product obtained showed: .8800175 - 7 - - pH = 3.39 alcohol 11 vol.% - lactic acid absent - volatile acids corresponding to 0.18 g / 1 SO 2.

5 Example 3

Preparation of an alcoholic beverage from sugar cane and grapefruit (grape fruit)

Pre-washed and dried sugar cane was squeezed into a juice with an SG with a single pair of rollers. of 1.075 and a pH of 4.85 containing 174 g / l of fermentable sugars. That juice was acidified with citric acid (25 g per hectolitre of juice) and tartaric acid (also 25 g / hl) to a pH of 4.21. Now 5% freshly squeezed grapefruit juice was added. This caused the pH to drop to 3.85. Now 5 g of SO2 was added per hectolitre of 15 liters of juice. The resulting mixture, ·:,;! was clarified and microfiltered over a 2 µm porosity filter. The microfiltered juice was divided into a smaller part and a larger part. The smaller part was used for a preculture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. When that pre-culture had reached a concentration of 5.10 cells per cm3, it was added to the main body and the fermentation continued in a closed vessel until the fermentable sugars were exhausted. The analysis of the product obtained showed: 25 - pH = 3.38 - alcohol 10.8 vol.% - volatile acids corresponding to 0.18 g / l SO 2.

This drink was stabilized with 8 g / hl SC ^

The drink then had very typical organoleptic properties: the smell of grape fruit and a bit bitter in the mouth.

Example 4

Preparation of an alcoholic drink from melon juice.

Peeled melons were pressed until one had 12 liters of juice. This juice contained 15 g / l fructose, 11 g / l glucose and 57 g / l sucrose (so a total of 83 g / l fermentable sugars).

That juice was clarified and acidified to pH = 4.30 with 1.5 g / l citric acid and 1.5 g / l tartaric acid. * 8800775 * - 8 - 50 mg / l SO 2 was added before clarification on a 0.3 mm screen. The juice thus clarified was filtered through a 10 µm membrane and then over a 0.2 µm ultra membrane. As an additional precaution, the microfiltered juice was stored at -4 ° C, apart from 3 liters used for culture. 600 mg of dried yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were added to this 3 liter. The next day g, the yeast was in its growth phase and had a strength of 10 cells per cm3. The preculture was then thawed to the main body of 10 liters and juice heated to 20 ° C, after which the whole was left to ferment for two days at 20 ° C under a carbonic atmosphere. A 15 liter glass vessel was used for this purpose, which was provided with a gas initiator so that a CO2 atmosphere could be maintained above the juice.

The juice reached a density of 1.010 and then a 4 liter portion A was pasteurized immediately to terminate the fermentation. The rest of the juice, fraction B, was further fermented to its natural end. 80 mg / l SO 2 was then added.

20 The products thus obtained had the following properties:

Fraction A: Beverage not completely fermented - pH = 4.10 - alcohol 2.8% by volume.

25 - fermentable sugar 38 g / l - volatile acids corresponding to 0.15 g / l ^ SO ^.

Fraction B. Completely fermented drink.

- pH - 4.02 - alcohol 5.0 vol.% 30 - fermentable sugars less than 1 g / 1 - total volatile acids corresponding to 0.20 g / 1 SO 2. Example 5

Device for carrying out the method according to the invention (see the accompanying drawing).

35 Sugarcane stalks are cut by hand without flaming prior defoliation to prevent any physical damage to the stem which could lead to contamination of the interior with microorganisms.

The stems are defoliated, preferably after transport to the place of the device, cut into pieces of about 1.20 meters. 8800175-9 and placed on the preparation table 2.

Table 2 is a chain conveyor made of stainless steel bars that brings the reed to a washbasin 3, consisting of an open conveyor belt with sprinklers 5 4 above which spray drinking water. This washing is intended for the removal of various types of dirt, in particular from remains of earth.

After washing, the sugar cane is pressed in a single pair of rollers. A first press juice with an SG is thus obtained. of 1,080 and a high content (188 g / l) of fermentable sugars. Note that the reed stems may be dried between washing and straining.

The bagasse coming from rolling pair 5 is not further exhausted, but is removed via 6.

The juice obtained by pressing in 5 is thus pure cane juice and then undergoes a multi-step clarification.

Here, a separation system 7 consisting of a bucket and an Archimedes screw is used for the removal of the solids. The juice then passes through a sieve with elongated holes of approximately 2 x 15 mm and is collected in a container 8 standing under the separator 7.

There is a pH meter in container 8 so that the juices can be selected. In fact, only the juices are maintained at a pH of about 5.2 to 5.4, if the pH is outside those limits, the juice is discarded and the device stopped. It is believed that at pH above 5.4 or below 5.2 there is contamination or spoilage.

The juice is moved from separator 7 with piston pump 9 to an intermediate storage 10. Pump 9 also serves to remove juice that does not meet the stated pH requirement. For this purpose, the pump 9 has a T-piece with valves that regulate the destination of the juice as a function of their pH.

The pH is adjusted between 3.5 and 4.3 between pump 9 and vessel 10 and SO 2 is added to protect the juice from a starting fermentation. The SO2 serves simultaneously as an antioxidant and as an antibiotic. Adjusting the pH is done with another, acidic juice such as lemon juice or grape fruit or orange juice, or by adding 40 citric acid and tartaric acid.

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The juice is sent from vessel 10 by a centrifuge pump 11 via a separator 12 to a centrifuge 13. That centrifuge can be of the brand Westfalia type SA 2060076, with a rotation speed of 6500 rpm. The function of separator 12, in which the juice is sieved again, is a protection of the centrifuge 13. Separator 12 here is a self-washing vertical bowl with an automatic sieve with scraper at the front, built up from a grid with distances of 0.9 mm. Thus, all suspended material coarser than 1 mm is removed. The function of centrifuge 13 is to clarify the juice sufficiently for it to be placed in a tangential filtration device 15 over a mineral membrane with a porosity of 0.2 µm.

The device 15 may be a half closed loop Imeca device with static pressure control and filtering in portions. That device comprises four loops, each with two patterns in series. Each cartridge contains 19 membranes with a porosity of 0.2 µm and a total surface area of 30.4 m2. At the entrance, the flow rate is on average 50 hectoliters / hour.

Centrifuge 13 chases the sieved juices to a buffer vessel 14. Centrifuge 13 in this case is a hydrocyclone with water overpressure.

The retentate 16 exiting from the tangential filtration device 15 passes to a heat exchanger 17, while the filtrate 18 passes through a second heat exchanger 19 to a battery 20 of closed fermentation vessels.

Heat exchangers 17 and 19 are supplied with cooling water from a cold power station 21. The tangential filtration heats the juices and both retentate and filtrate must be cooled in heat exchanger 17 and 19. By returning the retention through exchanger 17 to vessel 14, it is possible to keep the juice in vessel 14 at a temperature below about 25 ° C.

In this way it is achieved that a crystal-35 clear and sterile cane juice is placed in barrels 20, because it is freed from all yeasts, bacteria and particles larger than 0.2 µm.

This remarkable and well-controlled purity of the cane juice is essential in the process of the invention because it allows the desired end product to be obtained with a single 40 inoculation with a well-chosen exogenous yeast strain. The yeast chosen is Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain CBS 6978, originating from the INRA at Narbonne 9 with a guaranteed content of 25.10 live cells per gram (Fermivin from the Société Rapidase at Seclin 59113, 5 France). However, it is also possible to choose other commercially available yeasts, for example another strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The juice comes in about 20 ° C in barrels 20,

The inoculation is done with a pre-culture which is prepared in vessel 10. For this purpose a part of the juice intended for vessels 20 is separated and passed to pre-culture vessel 23. The selected yeast is introduced into vessel 23 with a metering pump 24. Vessel 23 is provided with a stirrer, a tube with which air is blown into the heart of the kettle to ensure aerobic conditions, and a heat exchanger 25 connected to the cold power station 21 so that the aerobic culture takes place at a temperature between 20 ° and 28 ° C.

Dosing pump 24 also serves to adjust the pH and to make any additions, for example nitrogen compounds. Stirring and aeration in vessel 23 allow the yeast to multiply there; this growth can be checked under the microscope by counting.

This preculture is made in fermentation vats about 24 hours before its injection. Preferably, this injection is done when the yeast is in its growth phase.

The yeast then passes through a piston pump 26 to all the vessels filled with microfiltered juice, at a dose of 10 to 25% by volume of that filtered juice.

The vessels 20 are each provided with plate heat exchangers 27 which are connected to the cold power station 21, which allows a proper control of the fermentation temperature, preferably between 20 ° and 28 ° C.

A part of the vessels 20 is not filled with micro-filtered and fermentable juice but is connected to the tap of vessels 20 where fermentation does take place.

Centrifugation is advantageously centrifuged between the above groups of vessels to remove the dead yeast. This centrifugation can be followed by a tangential micro-40 filtration over a membrane with a porosity of 0.2 µm .8800175 yr-12 - to remove the last traces of yeast and any sediment.

At output 28 of the fermentation vats one has a crystal clear sugar wine with an alcohol content of 10 to 11% by volume. To prevent bacterial attack, the temperature of that sugar wine at the exit of the fermentation is close to 18 ° C.

This sugar wine goes to a unit 29 in which a distillation and rectification known per se takes place.

This unit is set, for example, to obtain two types of alcohol, one of 96% by volume with a maximum of 9 g of other substances per hectolitre, and another of 94% by volume with a content of other substances between 10 and 15 g per hectolitre. .

The alcohol thus obtained then passes to two vessels 30, each with a plate heat exchanger 31 connected to the cooling plant 21, with the task of limiting the temperature rise during dilution with vessels from vessels 32. The water for this comes from a demineralization with anion and cation exchangers; that water will have a specific resistance of 200,000 ohms / cm.

This cutting converts the rectified alcohol to the beverage with 40% alcohol by volume. That drink is stored in barrels 33. It has very pleasant organoleptic properties and their physiological properties are essentially determined by their alcohol content.

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Claims (9)

Method for preparing an alcoholic beverage from plant juice which naturally contains at least one fermentable sugar, characterized in that a) one takes a plant juice obtained by squeezing a vegetable product such that the content of the plant juice of fermentable sugars is between 80 and 230 g / liter, the pH is adjusted for sulphitizing and then clarification between 3.5 and 4.3, at which clarification all suspended matter is removed coarser than 1 mm, b) the clarified juice is microfiltrated over a membrane with a porosity between 0.2 and 0.45 µm. subject and dividing it into two parts: a larger part and a smaller part, c) pre-fermentation in the smaller part by aerobic cultivation of a selected yeast, d) pre-culturing in the larger part of the microfiltered add juice and alcoholic fermentation is carried out under a carbon dioxide atmosphere at a temperature between 20 ° and 28 ° C. 2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the alcoholic fermentation is carried out to an alcohol content of between 2 and 14% by volume of ethanol. Process according to claim 2, characterized in that the fermentation is continued to its natural end. Process according to claim 2, characterized in that the fermentation is terminated at a preselected alcohol content by removing the yeast from the liquid. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the aerobic pre-culture of step c) is carried out at a temperature between 20 ° and 28 ° C. Process according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the selected yeast belongs to Saccharomyces 35 cerevisiae. 8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in step d) the yeast is added to a content between 10 and 10 yeast cells per cm 3 and that the yeast is in its growth phase. 40 .9. Process according to any one of the preceding claims 8800175 ύ A, characterized in that in step d) the volume of the added yeast is between 10 and 25% by volume of the main portion of the microfiltered juice. Process according to any one of claims 1 to 9, 5, characterized in that the alcoholic fermentation takes place in a closed vessel. Process according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the alcoholic fermentation takes place in a closed vessel. 10 -o-o-o-o-o-. 8800176