AU2017202161A1

AU2017202161A1 - Alcoholic beverage

Info

Publication number: AU2017202161A1
Application number: AU2017202161A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Byung Woo Min
Original assignee: Marigold Int Pty Ltd
Current assignee: MARIGOLD INTERNATIONAL Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2016-05-02
Filing date: 2017-03-31
Publication date: 2017-11-16
Also published as: AU2018202471B2; AU2018202471A1

Abstract

Abstract An improved alcoholic beverage and a process for making same are disclosed. A spirit of vitis grapes is diluted by mineralised alkaline water, followed by subjection of the diluted spirit to ultrasonic energy in a maturation tank. The resultant beverage demonstrates improved taste and palatability. C')O'7U AIT ALKALINE 4 CONCENTRATED WATER GRAPE SPIRIT CHARCOAL - CHARCOAL FILTER 6 FILTER FILTERED ALKALINE DILUTED ALCOHOL NUTRITIONAL ADDITIVES 7 FILTERING AND DEODOURIZATION IN TANK MATURATION ULTRASONIC 50,000L - 100,000L ENERGY PRECISE FILTER Il BOTTLING -1 FINISHED END PRODUCT , 13

Description

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to alcoholic beverages and, in particular, to alcoholic beverages made from grape spirits.

Background Art

The Australian wine industry is the world’s fourth largest exporter of wine with approximately 750 million litres a year consigned to the international export market. The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism. During certain economic and weather conditions Australian vignerons are often forced to sell their grapes at much lower prices for usage in lower margin alcoholic beverages. The net result is that there are significant lost opportunities for Australian vignerons and the Australian economy.

Spirit products such as vodka, scotch, brandy, tequila and the like are generally produced through a distillation process. As a consequence, all of the mineral content contained in the wort or mash does not transfer across to the alcoholic product, and so this mineral content is discarded. As a result, there is no beneficial mineral content, or nutrition, in all western spirits. Furthermore, once the alcohol is produced, in order to improve the taste and smoothness of the beverage, many products are aged from 2 to 10 years, for example in wooden casks. The costs of these conventional aging processes are enormous.

Most Western distillery companies have recognized that the above spirits have had a hard time trying to penetrate Asian markets. Especially, the markets for Chinese Baiju (40-60% v/v alcohol concentration) and Korean Soju (approximately 20% v/v alcohol concentration) which are generally consumed with an Asian meal, have been particularly difficult to penetrate. Hitherto, western spirit products such as whiskey, etc. have been consumed by Asian customers at a bar, or before having their oriental meals. This is thought to be because all western spirits have strong flavours and are less smooth than Baiju and Soju spirt.

In addition, it is thought that the digestion of ethanol by the human body results in the loss of various minerals and electrolytes, for example, via urine. This explains why many drinkers awake the next morning with a substantial thirst. It is therefore desirable to replenish minerals and electrolytes after drinking alcohol, in a manner analogous to replenishing minerals and electrolytes after perspiring due to exercise, for example.

Grape spirit has traditionally been diluted with water and the type of water used is of particular interest. In some instances water which has undergone ion exchange and/or reverse osmosis is used to dilute grape spirit, however, this does nothing to add minerals and other trace elements.

Genesis of the Invention

The genesis of the present invention is a desire to ameliorate the above-mentioned commercial and chemical disadvantages in a process applicable to large scale production.

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a method of creating an alcoholic beverage, said method comprising the steps of: (i) adding alkaline water to concentrated grape spirit, (ii) placing the diluted grape spirit into a maturation tank, and (iii) subjecting the tank contents to ultrasonic energy

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is disclosed an alcoholic beverage made by the above-mentioned method.

Brief Description of the Drawings A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the process steps of the method of the preferred embodiment,

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a maturation tank including a source of ultrasonic energy, and

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of the consequences of the application of ultrasonic energy.

Detailed Description

An important aspect of the preferred embodiment is the use of what is termed “alkaline water”. One source of alkaline water is water is drawn from aquifers. Accordingly, this water is very rich in salts having calcium, sodium, and magnesium ions and other trace mineral elements. Such alkaline water has a pH of approximately 8 compared with a pH of 7 for distilled pure water.

The preferred embodiment is an alkaline water sold under the Registered Trade Mark PH8 by PH8 Pty Ltd and drawn from a limestone source on the Yorke Peninsular of South Australia. This water has a pH of 8.3 and the following analysis:

Bicarbonate 322 mg/L Selenium 0.0006 mg/L Silica 11 mg/L Calcium 72.5 mg/L Magnesium 3.26 mg/L Potassium 3.26 mg/L.

An alternative source of alkaline water is rainwater, tap water from a municipal supply, or other potable water in which has been submerged, or otherwise brought into contact with, one or more of various minerals such as Tourmaline, Zeolite, Maifan stone, Muyu Jade, etc. A further source of alkaline water is water which has been electrolytically reduced by electrolysis.

As seen in Fig. 1, the above-mentioned PH8 alkaline water 1 is preferably passed through a charcoal filter 2 in order to create filtered alkaline water 3. Concentrated grape spirit 4 having an alcoholic content of 95% v/v is preferably similarly passed through a charcoal filter 5 before being mixed with the filtered alkaline water 3. This creates diluted alcohol 6 which has an alcoholic content of approximately 20% - 40% v/v. Traditionally diluted alcohol has a pH of approximately 6.5, however, because of the alkaline water 1 the diluted alcohol 6 has a pH of approximately 7.3.

The diluted alcohol 6 then preferably undergoes a filtering and deodorisation step 7 before being stored in a maturation tank 8. The preferred embodiment is concerned with large-scale production and so the maturation tank 8 preferably has a volume in the range of 50,000 litres to 100,000 litres.

Whilst in the maturation tank 8, the diluted alcohol 6 is subjected to ultrasonic energy 9. In addition, if desired, various nutritional additives 10 can be added to the maturation tank 8.

Following a short maturation period, typically from 7 to 50 days, and preferably 20-40 days, the contents of the tank 8 are passed through a precise filter 11 (that is a filter having an aperture size of 5 microns, or less) before undergoing a bottling step 12 so as to result in a finished end product 13. The steps indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1 are preferable or desirable steps.

As seen in Fig. 2, within the maturation tank 8 is a cylindrical float 20 which supports an ultrasonic transducer 21 fed with ultrasonic energy via a cable 22. The transducer 21 is energised with a voltage in the range of from 200 - lOOOmVpp and having a frequency of approximately 40,000 Hz (ie 40kHz). The preferred range is 37-43 kHz. As diagrammatically indicated in Fig. 2, the acoustic energy from the transducer 21 passes through the tank contents and is reflected by the walls of the tank 8. For this reason, the tank 8 is constructed from a material which reflects ultrasound waves and so materials such as fibre reinforced plastic which absorb ultrasound should not be used. The preferred material for the tank 8 is stainless steel because it is of food grade quality and reflects ultrasound.

The arrangement indicated in Fig. 2 with the ultrasound transducer 21 located within the tank 8 overcomes any noise pollution problems which may occur if an ultrasound transducer were to be located externally of the tank 8.

The water molecule is dipolar and these molecules are thought to be attracted to ethanol molecules so as to form ethanol clusters 30 as illustrated in Fig. 3. It is thought that the effect of the vibration at ultrasound frequencies experienced by the clusters 30 results initially in smaller ethanol groups 31 and ultimately in single ethanol molecules 32 to which individual water molecules are attracted. This process is some extent analogous to homogenisation. A chemical analysis of the finished end product 13 after 20 days maturation indicated a pH of 7.3, a sodium ion concentration of 71.5 mg/L, a calcium ion concentration of 25.1 mg/L, a magnesium ion concentration of 17.4 mg/L and an ethanol concentration of 20% v/v.

The taste of the finished end product 13 is clearly a very subjective subject. In order to evaluate the results of the process of Fig. 1, a panel of 10 human taste testers was used. Each taster indicated their opinion utilising a 7 point scale in which 1 equals very bad, 3 equals poor, 5 equals common, and 7 equals good.

The tasters were asked to give a numerical result for each of the following concepts, Overall acceptability, Smooth taste, Fresh taste, and Flavour. The results of the panel were then averaged. The results are as follows:

Table 1

Beverage Overall acceptability Smooth taste Fresh taste Flavour

After step 7 3.80 1.80 3.40 4.00

After 20 days

Maturation 6.60 6.50 5.20 5.10

Despite the inherently subjective character of such taste tests, the results clearly demonstrate that 20 days maturation in the tank 8 whilst being subjected to ultrasonic energy 9, creates an improved product.

Furthermore, the matured improved product made in accordance with the above has been found to hold its improved taste, notwithstanding the passage of a period of approximately 1 year. This is to be contrasted with some prior art spirits made using ultrasound vibrations where a short-term improvement is achieved but is rapidly diminished with time.

The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the alcoholic beverage arts, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

For example, the preferred nutritional additives 10 are amino acids.

The term “comprising” (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of “including” or “having” and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of’.

Claims

7 The following claims define some aspects of the present invention.

1. A method of creating an alcoholic beverage, said method comprising the steps of: (i) adding alkaline water to concentrated grape spirit, (ii) placing the diluted grape spirit into a maturation tank, and (iii) subjecting the tank contents to ultrasonic energy.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the alkaline water has a pH of approximately 8.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the alkaline water includes calcium, magnesium and sodium ions.
4. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-3 were in the ultrasonic energy has a frequency of from approximately 37 kHz to approximately 43 kHz, preferably approximately 40kHz.
5. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-4 wherein the diluted grape spirit has a maturation period within the maturation tank of less than 50 days, and preferably in the range of from approximately 20 to approximately 40 days.
6. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-5 wherein the maturation tank has a capacity of from approximately 50,000 L to approximately 100,000 L.
7. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-6 wherein the concentrated grape spirit has an ethanol content of approximately 95 %v/v.
8. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-7 wherein the maturation tank contents have an ethanol content of from approximately 20%v/v to approximately 40%v/v. 8
9. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-8 wherein the maturation tank contents have a pH in excess of 7.
10. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the maturation tank contents have a pH of approximately 7.3.
11. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-10 wherein said alkaline water is produced from one or more of the following sources: (a) an aquifer, (b) an electrolysis device, and (c) by being brought into contact with one or more of the following minerals Tourmaline, Zeolite, Maifan stone, and Muyu Jade.
12. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-11 wherein a nutritional additive is added to the beverage.
13. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein a nutritional additive comprises at least one amino acid.
14. An alcoholic beverage produced by the method as claimed in any one of claims 1-13. Dated this 31st day of March 2017 MARIGOLD INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD By FRASER OLD & SOHN Patent Attorneys for the Applicant