AU2007231868A1

AU2007231868A1 - Frame for use in the oaking of an alcoholic beverage

Info

Publication number: AU2007231868A1
Application number: AU2007231868A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Neal Palmer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-11-07
Filing date: 2007-11-07
Publication date: 2008-05-22

Description

2 (.i Frame for use in the oaking of an alcoholic beverage 0 Z FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the maturation of an alcoholic beverage and 00 in particular to the control of the oaking of wine and other alcoholic beverages.

00 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The aging of alcoholic beverages in wooden barrels has been undertaken for centuries. Barrels are used to age wine or distilled spirits such as whiskey, brandy, or rum. Some specialty beers are also aged in barrels which were previously used in aging harder spirits, thus imparting characteristic and distinctive flavours to the beer.

Wine aged in new oak barrels takes on some of the characteristics of the wood, such as vanillin and wood tannins. This process is commonly referred to as "oaking" of the wine. Extraction of these oak flavour compounds from the wood including phenolic compounds enhance and expand the wine's complexity. The presence of these compounds is dependent on many factors, including the place of origin of the wood, how the staves were cut and dried, and degree of "toast" applied during manufacture. After roughly three or four years, most of a barrel's flavour compounds have been leached and the barrel is no longer useful for maturation purposes. Typically the compounds leach out 60% first year, 20% second year and for the third and fourth years.

Oak barrels have various disadvantages including that they are expensive, have only a limited life span, are hard to store and handle and are subject to leakage.

To retain the desired measure of oak influence, a winery will replace a certain percentage of its barrels every year, although this can vary from 5% to 100%. Some winemakers replace the oak barrels twice during the aging process. This can be an expensive exercise as the oak barrels are typically imported from France or the United States.

To minimise these costs wine is often matured in large stainless steel vessels. To flavour the wine oak chips or planks are placed within the vessel to impart the desired characteristics. The problem arises in separating the oak chips from the wine once the aging process is accomplished. Furthermore, the oak pieces 3 only need to be in the wine for a period of time during maturation. If the oak pieces 0 z are left in the wine for too long then over-oaking can occur.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome at least some of the aforementioned problems or provide the public with a useful alternative.

00 IC 5 It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a frame for use in 00 controlling the degree of oaking during the maturation of an alcoholic beverage.

(Ni r SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION C Therefore in one form of the invention there is proposed a frame for use in the maturation of an alcoholic beverage, including: a support member; and a hanger adapted to removably engage the support member; wherein the hanger is adapted to slidably engage at least one wood portion.

Preferably the support member is maintained in a fixed spatial arrangement within a vessel adapted to house the alcoholic beverage.

In preference the support member includes a longitudinally extending beam which in attached to a plurality of substantially upright rods.

More preferably the rods include, at their upper ends, an engagement surface adapted to support the hanger.

Most preferably the engagement surface is an upwardly facing U-shaped member.

Preferably the hanger includes two longitudinally extending shafts connected by a handle.

In preference the shafts include a retaining means at each terminal end.

Most preferably the two longitudinally extending shafts are substantially parallel.

Preferably the retaining means is a downwardly pointing portion of the shaft.

4 Most preferably at least one wood portion is adapted to slidably engage the z shaft such that when the hanger is positioned on the support member the wood portion is retained on the shaft.

Preferably the wood portion is oak.

00 CO 5 In preference a plurality of oak planks are attached to each of the shafts.

00 SPreferably between 20 to 30 oak planks are supported on the hanger.

SMost preferably, one end of each of the plurality of oak planks is retained on N the shaft and the opposing end is able to move freely within the vessel. In this way the oak planks are able to fan out within the interior of the vessel.

Preferably a lid of the vessel, in a closed position, is adapted to contact the handle of the hanger such that the hanger is prevented from disengaging from the support member. This may occur due to the buoyancy of the wood portions.

In a further form of the invention there is proposed a method of inserting a plurality of wood portions into a vessel containing an alcoholic beverage, including the step of: providing a frame within the vessel adapted to retain a plurality of wood portion, wherein the frame includes a fixed support member and a removable hanger; slidably engaging the plurality of wood portions onto the hanger; positioning the hanger within the vessel wherein it engages the fixed support member such that at least one end of each of the plurality of wood portions is permitted to move within the vessel.

Preferably, the wood members are planks of oak.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several implementations of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the advantages and principles of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a frame of the present z invention installed within a tank; Figure 2 is a perspective exploded view of the frame of Figure 1 illustrating the attachment of oak planks; 00 IO 5 Figure 3 is a perspective view of the frame of Figure 1 illustrating how the 00 different elements interrelate; (Ni r Figure 4 is a side cross-sectional view of the frame and oak slats installed within the tank of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the frame illustrating the hanger and oak slats being lowering into a maturation vessel; Figure 6 is a front cross-sectional view of the frame of Figure 5 illustrating the behaviour of the oak slats when placed in a body of wine; and Figure 7 is a side cross-sectional view of the frame of Figure 5 illustrating how the support member can form part of the structural framework of the maturation vessel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. Although the description includes exemplary embodiments, other embodiments are possible, and changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same and like parts.

Referring to the drawings for a more detailed description, a frame 10 is illustrated, demonstrating by way of examples arrangements in which the principles of the present invention may be employed. The frame 10, as illustrated in Figure 1, includes a support member 12 and a hanger 14. The support member 12 includes a longitudinally extending beam 16 and two substantially upright rods 18 which include at their upper ends an engagement surface 20 adapted to support the hanger 14.

The support member 12 is held in a fixed arrangement within the vessel 22 as 6 illustrated in figure 1. The beam 16 is connected to the sides 24 of the vessel and O the engagement surfaces 20, which are connected to the upright rods 18 and which Z in the present embodiment comprises upwardly facing U-shaped members, are O attached to the top of the vessel adjacent to the lid 26.

The hanger 14, which is adapted to removably engage the support member I12, includes two longitudinally extending shafts 28 connected by a handle 30. As 00 illustrated in figure 2, the longitudinally extending shafts 28 are adapted to slidably engage or support oak planks 32. The oak planks 32, which include holes 34, are slid onto shafts 28 in the direction of arrows 36. The shafts 28 include retaining N 10 means 38 at each terminal end. As illustrated the retaining means can be simply a bent portion of the shaft 28. Once the desired quantity of oak planks 32 are positioned on the shafts 28 the hanger 14 can be lowered onto the support member 12 in the direction of arrow 40. It is envisaged that between twenty and thirty oak planks 32 will be supported on the hanger 14. However the reader should appreciate that the invention is not limited to this number of planks and more or less could be used depending upon the size of the tank and the size of the planks.

When the hanger 14 is positioned on the support member 14, as illustrated in figure 3, the retaining means 38 engage the upwardly facing U-shaped members In this way the oak planks 32 are retained on the shaft 28 even though one end of each plank 32 is free to move, due to its buoyancy, when the vessel is filled with wine. The reader would appreciate that the oak planks would be able to fan out within the vessel thereby providing more even distribution of oak throughout the body of wine.

To prevent the hanger 14 disengaging from the support member 12, due to the buoyancy of the oak planks 32, the lid 26, which includes an access duct 42, is adapted to be in contact with or at least in close proximity to the handle 30 as illustrated in figure 4. As further illustrated in Figure 4 the beam 16 can alternatively be positioned transversely across the tank. Although in the figures the support member 12 includes a beam 16 and two upwardly projecting rods 18 the invention is not limited to a support member of this configuration. It may be that the upwardly projecting rods 18 are attached directly to the floor of the tank or the support member could comprise two beams that extend between the sides of the tank and are configured to directly engage the hanger 14.

7 In a preferred embodiment as illustrated in Figure 5 the maturation vessel 44 0 is constructed from gas permeable flexible material such a polyethylene and includes a rigid outer framework 46 to prevent undesirable expansion of the vessel 44. The vessel 44 further includes a bung tap 48 and a passageway 50 with associated valve 52. The rigid outer framework 46 includes two transversely extending members 54 00 which are adapted to accommodate the prongs of a forklift to assist in transportation 00 of the vessel 44.

SIn use, the hanger 14 with attached oak planks 32 is lowered into the vessel S44, containing a fixed support member 12, in the direction of arrow 54. This can be (N 10 done at any stage of maturation of the wine contained within the vessel or even before the wine has been added to the vessel. Furthermore, as the skilled addressee would appreciate the hanger 14 and attached oak planks 32 can be removed during the maturation process without having to remove the wine. This can be done to remove, reduced or even replace the oak planks thereby enabling the vintner to control the degree of oak extraction.

Another advantage of the present invention, as illustrated in Figure 6, is that because one end of each plank 32 remains free to move within the vessel 44 when the vessel is filled with wine 56 the planks have a tendency, due to their buoyancy, to fan out. This enables the oak planks 32 to be distributed throughout the vessel 44.

As illustrated in Figure 7 the beam 16 of support member 12 can be positioned at a midpoint of the vessel 44. In the preferred embodiment the beam 16 is connected through the walls of the vessel 44 by way of bolts 58 to the outer framework 46. In this way the beam 16 acts as an integral part of the external framework 46 thereby providing greater resistance to undesirable expansion of the flexible vessel 44.

Barrels used for aging are typically made of oak, but chestnut and redwood are sometime used. Makers of Japanese sake have been known to use Cedar. The reader should therefore appreciate that although in its preferred embodiment the invention uses oak it is not limited to the use of this particular type of wood nor is the invention limited to the maturation of wine.

The skilled addressee will now appreciate the many advantages of the present invention. The frame is useful in controlling the degree of oak extraction 8 during the maturation of an alcoholic beverage such as wine. The configuration of z the frame, that includes a fixed support member and a removable hanger, means that the oak planks can be removed at any stage of the maturation process without Shaving to empty the vessel of the wine. Furthermore the number of planks can be reduced or replaced depending upon the degree of oak extraction required. This oO 00provides the vintner with the ability to easily control the amount of oaking of the wine.

00 M Further advantages and improvements may very well be made to the present invention without deviating from its scope. Although the invention has been shown and described in what is conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope and spirit of the invention.

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in this field.

In the summary of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprising" is used in the sense of "including", i.e. the features specified may be associated with further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Claims

4. A frame as in claim 3 wherein the rods include at their upper ends an engagement surface adapted to support the hanger. A frame as in claim 4 wherein the engagement surface is an upwardly facing U- shaped member.
6. A frame as in claim 1 the hanger including two longitudinally extending shafts connected by a handle.
7. A frame as in claim 6 wherein the shafts include a retaining means at each terminal end.
8. A frame as in claim 7 wherein the two longitudinally extending shafts are substantially parallel.
9. A frame as in claim 7 wherein the retaining means is a downwardly pointing portion of the shaft. A frame as in claim 6 wherein at least one wood portion is adapted to slidably engage the shaft such that when the hanger is positioned on the support member the wood portion is retained on the shaft.
11. A frame as in claim 10 wherein the wood portion is oak.
12. A frame as in claim 11 wherein there are some 20 to 30 oak pieces supported by the frame.
13. A frame as in claim 12 wherein one end of each of the oak planks is retained on 0 the shaft and the opposing end is able to move freely within the vessel.
14. A method of inserting a plurality of wood portions into a vessel containing an alcoholic beverage, including the steps of: 0o 5 providing a frame within the vessel adapted to retain a plurality of wood portion, oO wherein the frame includes a fixed support member and a removable hanger; slidably engaging the plurality of wood portions onto the hanger; Spositioning the hanger within the vessel wherein it engages the fixed support member Ssuch that at least one end of each of the plurality of wood portions is permitted to C 10 move within the vessel.