CA2133272A1

CA2133272A1 - Preparation of beer

Info

Publication number: CA2133272A1
Application number: CA 2133272
Authority: CA
Inventors: Charles J. Koch
Original assignee: Boston Beer LP
Current assignee: Boston Beer LP
Priority date: 1993-10-06
Filing date: 1994-09-29
Publication date: 1995-04-07
Also published as: EP0652284B1; EP0652284A3; DE69424120T2; JPH07236467A; DE69424120D1; EP0652284A2

Abstract

PREPARATION OF BEER

ABSTRACT

High alcohol beer having a full, round flavor is prepared by employing as the yeast a wine or champagne yeast, and a sweetened wort.

Description

21~272 .

3 This invention relates generally to the preparation of 4 malt beverages, and more particularly to the preparation of high alcohol beer having a full, round flavor.
6 In the production of beer, Brewers' yeast is used to 7 ferment into ethyl alcohol a substrate made of a mixture 8 of fermentable carbohydrates so called "wort ^9 carbohydrates." The wort carbohydrates involved which can be fermented by Brewers' yeast are normally maltose, ll glucose, maltotriose and traces of sucrose and fructose.
12 They are obtained by allowing malt enzymes (alpha and beta 13 amylase) to transform starch molecu1es from malt and other 14 adjuncts into the fermentable sugars outlined above. This ~ ~o is accomplished during the so-called mashing operation.
16 Conventional mashing involves mixing together of malt 17 and cereal adjuncts in hot water, followed by a series of 18 heating and resting cycles. Substances which are l9 solubilized in the hot water are collectively called the extract. Following mashing, the soluble materials are 21 extracted in a lauter tub, leaving behind the spent grain. -~-22 A clear liquid (wort) obtained by the extraction may then 23 be transferred to a brew kettle and boiled for a period of 24 time (kettle boiled) which inactivates the malt enzymes. --Wort compositions vary depending on the raw materials and 26 mash cycle employed.
27 A typical wort used in brewing may comprise the mixed 28 extract of a barley malt mash and a cereal adjuncts mash 29 (typically corn grits or rice). Such mixed extract may be obtained by treating a kiln dried barley malt with warm 31 water, e.g. at about 50C., in one vessel, the so-called 32 "mash tub", and boiling the cereal adjuncts, (e.g. corn 33 grits or rice in another vessel, the so-called "cooker"
34 and then adding the boiling contents of the cooker to the warm malt suspension in the mash tub. This serves to .. ~133272 .~. . .

1 raise the temperature of the mash tub contents typically 2 to about 57-67C. During the rise from 50C to about 3 67C, and starting at around 63C, the enzymes in the malt 4 and in particular beta-amylase which i9 most active S between 60 and 70C, partially degrade the starches in 6 both the malt itself and in the corn grits or rice to form 7 simple fermentation sugars, primarily glucose, fructose 8 and maltose. These simple sugars are fairly sweet ~ -9 tasting, and also are fermentable by Brewers' yeast to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
11 The combined mash is then filtered in a lauter tub, 12 mash filter or other means and the resulting wort boiled 13 with hops, filtered, cooled and fermented with yeast, and - ~`-14 carbonated to produce a beer or ale.
15 Conventional beer, i.e. produced by the above- ~-16 described process, has an alcohol content of about 4-5% by 17 vol. Recently, there has been an increased consumer -~
18 interest in beer having a somewhat higher alcohol content.
19 Traditionally, higher alcohol beers have been produced by a so-called "freeze concentration" process which involves 21 subjecting a conventionally produced beer to freezing 22 temperatures under controlled conditions whereby a portion 23 of the water content is changed to ice, and removed.
24 However, freezing the beer, and removing a portion of the ~-water results in a beer having a higher potential for 26 increased turbidity, haze or cloudiness, harsh flavor and 27 a viscous mouth-feel which is considered to be unpalatable 28 by many consumers ("unbalanced" beer). Thus, freeze ~-29 concentrated beers or so-called "ice bock" beer have achieved little consumer acceptance.
31 It is thus a primary object of the present invention 32 to provide a new and improved process for production of ~ -33 beer which overcomes the aforesaid and other disadvantages 34 of the prior art. Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved process for producing a 36 beer of higher alcohol content as compared to conventional 1 beer. A specific ob~ect of the present inventlon is to 2 provide a smooth, round flavored beer having a higher 3 alcohol content as compared to conventional beer.
4 These and other objects of the present invention are S achieved by employing in the fermentation step a yeast 6 tolerant to high percent of alcohol (e.g. champagne, wine, 7 distiller yeast) in place of a conventional Brewers' 8 yeast, and including in the wort added quantities of 9 simple fermentable sugars such as maple syrup or concentrated brewers wort or maltose. Unlike Brewers' 11 yeast which exhibits sensitivity to alcohol and become 12 deactivated or poisoned by alcohol levels of more than 13 about 7% by vol., champagne, wine or distiller yeasts 14 permit fermentation to continue to an alcohol level of 9-16% by vol., or more, provided there is enough ~food", 16 i.e. simple sugar in the brew. There results a high 17 alcohol beer characterized by a typical beer color and --18 mouth-feel, and a smooth, round flavor. ~ `-19 If desired, the resulting product may be freeze ~ -concentrated to produce an even higher alcohol content 21 beer. However, since the product starts with a higher 22 alcohol content, significantly less water need be removed 23 to achieve a high alcohol content. As a result, the 24 potential for increased turbidity, haze or cloudiness, viscous mouth-feel and harsh taste characteristics of 26 conventional freeze concentrated beers are greatly 27 reduced.
28 If desired, the resulting beer may then be aged in 29 used whiskey or wine wooden casks to further round or smooth the flavor.
31 The basic procedure was to suspend dried, ground 32 barley malt in water, heat the resulting suspension to a 33 specific conversion temperature profile. The mash is then --34 transferred to a filtering vessel or lauter tun. The clear liquid which drains from the mash and the hot water 36 used to wash the adhering sugars from the cereal grains . 2133272 1 are fed into the kettle.
2 Then additional simple sugars such as maple ayrup or 3 concentrated brewers wort or maltose are heated and 4 converted to a separate vessel (kettle). Both liquids as so-called wort are then mixed together. Hops are added 6 while the mixture is brought to a boil. Boiling is 7 maintained for a period of time.
8 The liquid is again strained, cooled and inoculated 9 with pitching yeast and allowed to ferment. The ferment liquid is then filtered and if desired freeze concentrated 11 to further raise the alcoholic content of the fermented 12 liquid.
13 The present invention employs a champagne, wine or 14 distiller yeast and a wort rich in simple sugars. There are several commercially available wine or champagne -16 yeasts which may advantageously be employed in accordance 17 with the present invention amongst which are mentioned EC-18 1118 or Pirse de Mousse, Kl(V-1116), 71B~1122) and 19 Wadenswil 27. The yeast should be added at a rate of 20 about 500 - 850 grams of pressed yeast per 100 liters of - - -21 wort, preferably about 600 - 800 grams of pressed yeast 22 per 100 liters of wort. This differs substantially from --23 the normal pitching rate which is about 170 grams pressed 24 (wet) yeast to 100 liters of wort when using a conventional Brewers'yeast. Also, in order to provide 26 sufficient yeast food, the wort should include sufficient, 27 e.g. 12 kilograms per 100 liters of simple sugars such as 28 maple syrup or concentrated brewers wort or maltose.
29 The resulting beer is characterized by a similar color, flavor and mouth feel of conventionally fermented 31 beer, but with a natural alcohol content of 15 - 16.5% by 32 vol. which may be further increased by freeze 33 concentration, i.e. to remove up to 25% of the water.
34 In another and particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the resulting beer is aged in used whiskey 36 or wine wooden casks or barrels for 60 to 90 days at 38F.

'~133272 1 While it once was a common practlce to age beer in wooden 2 casks, this practice has been replaced largely by aging in 3 glass-lined, stainless steel tanks due to the high costs 4 of high quality cooperage, and the extra costs of ~;
increased labor and evaporative losses inherent in aging 6 in wooden casks. However, it has been found that aging 7 the beex in used whiskey or wine barrels results in a beer 8 having a fuller and rounder flavor. The reason why aging 9 in used whiskey or wine wooden casks improves the flavor is not fully understood at this time. It is beli~ved, 11 however, that at least some soluble whiskey or wine esters 12 absorbed in the wood may be redissolved out of the wood, -13 and taken up by the beer. Aging the beer in new wooden 14 barrels does not produce comparable results.
The present invention will be further described in the 16 following working procedures.
17 PROCEDURE NO. 1 18 341 kilograms of ground barley malt were added to 8 19 barrels of water and heated to 122F with stirring in a mash mixer. The resulting malt mash was held at 122F for 21 20 min. Temperature was raised to 153F and held there 22 for 30 min. while stirring, then heated to 170F. and 23 transferred to the lauter tun. A clear liquid drained ~-24 from the mash, and hot water used to wash the adhering liquid from the grain were run into the brew kettle.
26 Concurrently, 273 kilograms of concentrated brewers 27 wort (CBW) and 277 kilograms of maple syrup were added to 28 3.5 barrels of water in another kettle while stirring and 29 heated to 135F; then 15 kilograms of GLOCZYMETM 12, available from Amano Enzyme U.S.A. Co., were added, let 31 work for 30 min., heated up to boil, then transferred to 32 the brew kettle and mixed with the main wort obtained from 33 the barley malt. The mix was boiled for 90 min. 2.3 34 kilograms of hop and 15 kilograms of yeast nutrient (YEASTEXTM) available from Siebel Institute were added 36 during the boiling period.

. ~13~272 1 The resultlng liquid was again strained, cooled to 2 about 65F. and transferred to a fermentation tank, to 3 which was added 6 kilograms of EC 1118 dry yeast 4 (champagne yeast) available from Scott Laboratories, Petaloma, California, U.S.A. The resulting mixture was 6 allowed to ferment for 10 days after the yeast settled 7 out, and after filtration, the resulting beer was aged for 8 60-90 days at 38C. in used whiskey wooden barrels.
9 The resulting beer had a dark amber appearance, a measured alcohol content of 16.1 and a full, round flavor.
11 ' 12 PROCEDURE NO. 2 13 The procedure No. 1 was repeated. However, instead of 14 one yeast strain, two strains were used. That is: SAMUEL
ADAMS ALETM yeast (Boston ~eer Company) was pitched first, 16 fermented for 5-7 days, then settled out, separated from 17 the beer. Since this ale yeast is not resistant to high 18 concentrations of alcohol, a high proportion of the 19 fermentable sugars remained in the beer, which was fermented down in 7 days by repitching it with champagne 21 yeast. The resulting beer had the same characteristic of 22 the previous one, but it was fruitier.
23 In a blind taste test, all the tasters characterized 24 tne beer aged in wooden barrels as having a fuller, Z5 rounder flavor.
26 Certain changes may be made without departing from the 27 scope of the invention herein involved. For example, it 28 is believed that the flavor of conventionally brewed beer 29 and ale, and other conventionally brewed malt beverages including low alcohol and non-alcoholic malt beverages 31 also may be improved by aging in used whiskey or wine 32 wooden barrels. It is therefore intended that all matter 33 contained in the above description shall be interpreted as 34 illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

1. A method of improving the flavor of a fermented barley malt, beer flavored beverage which comprises aging the beverage in used whiskey or wine barrels following fermentation.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said beverage is aged for from 60 to 90 days at 38°F.

3. In a method of producing a fermented barley malt, beer flavored beverage wherein the extract collected from a barley malt mash is blended with other sources of fermentable sugars and boiled to form a wort, the wort is pitched with yeast, and fermented, the improvement which comprises employing as the yeast a wine yeast.

4. In a method according to claim 3, wherein said fermentable sugars are selected from the group consisting of maple syrup, concentrated brewers wort and maltose.

5. In a method according to claim 3, and including the step of aging the fermented beverage in used whiskey or wine wooden barrels.

6. A fermented barley malt, beer flavored beverage prepared according to the method of claim 1.

7. A fermented barley malt, beer flavored beverage prepared according to the method of claim 4.

8. A fermented barley malt, beer flavored beverage prepared according to the method of claim 5.