GB962572A - Improvements in or relating to the production of hopped wort - Google Patents

Abstract

In continuously hopping wort, hops are conveyed, on the perforated platforms 4 of an end-less travelling conveyer 1, through and against a stream of boiling wort flowing through the U-shaped lower portion of a casing 5, which may be heated by steam, at a temperature between 215 and 230 DEG F, in a jacket 6. Fresh hops are fed on to the platforms through an opening 7 in the inverted-U-shaped upper portion of the casing and spent hops together with precipitated trub are removed through an <PICT:0962572/C6-C7/1> opening 8, as by steam from an injector 15. Sweet wort, from a pipe 19, is fed into the casing through an opening 9. The wort may be injected, in the form of a spray as by blowing steam, from a jet 17, across the outlet 18 of the pipe 19. Hopped wort leaves the casing through an opening 10 and a vented pipe 20 and then flows over a weir 22 into a discharge pipe 23. The height of the weir may be varied to attain a desired height of wort 24 in the lower portion of the casing. The conveyer may carry scrapers, to prevent deposition of trub on the inner surface of the casing. Steam for assisting the liberation of humulone and essential oils from the hops may be fed into the casing through a pipe 11 and water or wet steam may be fed in, through a pipe 12, to sparge the used hops.