JPS6362189B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for producing honey-fermented alcoholic beverages (mead). [Prior art and problems to be solved by the invention] The technology of fermenting honey to make alcohol is extremely old, and is said to have a history of 3,000 years, just like wine and beer. However, it is extremely difficult to ferment honey itself; in the usual method of diluting honey with water and adding pure cultured yeast, fermentation stops at 2 to 3% alcohol content, resulting in production of acid bacteria. In many cases, it becomes rancid due to the invasion of water. For this reason, the original honey-fermented alcoholic beverages, in which only honey was fermented, disappeared over the course of history, and alcoholic beverages began to be made by adding easily fermentable ingredients such as fruit juice and malt to honey, and various spices and other ingredients were added to honey. People started adding flavors and herbs to adjust the taste. Currently, only a small number of these products are manufactured in countries such as Poland and the UK. However, mixing other ingredients such as fruit juice and malt, as well as adding spices, will erase the flavor of pure honey. For Japanese people who love nature and enjoy the flavor of the ingredients themselves, genuine honey-fermented alcoholic beverages that take advantage of honey's unique mild flavor seem to be suitable. For this reason, there was a desire to establish a technology to completely ferment honey, which is difficult to ferment, without the aid of other raw materials. [Means for solving the problem] There are two possible reasons why honey does not ferment. Namely: 1. Presence of fermentation inhibitors in honey. 2. Lack of yeast nutrients or fermentation-supporting ingredients in honey. The present inventor first conducted repeated experiments and investigated the above 1. However, the presence of fermentation inhibiting substances such as nitrous acid and formic acid was extremely low, and it was concluded that the incomplete fermentation of honey was not caused by such factors. I knew. Next, we considered item 2 above. I learned that fermenting sugar solution with yeast requires a number of effective substances, including inorganic substances such as potassium and magnesium, vitamins, and nitrogen-containing ingredients. In other words, the reason that vigorous alcoholic fermentation occurs when grape juice is left alone is because it contains both of these active ingredients, and the reason that honey does not ferment is because some of these ingredients are missing in its contents. I surmised that it was because of this. Therefore, when we compared the contents of honey and grape juice, as shown in Table 1, we found a large difference in nutrients for yeast, such as nitrogenous components, minerals, and vitamins.

【table】

[Table] In other words, except for 20% water, the contents of honey are mostly carbohydrates such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose, and compared to grape juice, it contains extremely few nitrogenous components, minerals, and vitamins. Therefore, it was thought that this is the reason why grape juice is fermented and honey is not fermented. Therefore, the present inventor used domestic black locust honey as a raw material, added various fermentation aids, nutrients for yeast bacteria, natural products, etc., and repeated numerous fermentation tests using sake yeast No. 901 to achieve the following results. I gained this knowledge. 1. Vitamins: Honey contains many types of vitamins such as vitamins B ₁ , B ₂ , B ₆ , nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin C, folic acid, and acetylcholine, but the amount is small.
However, no fermentation-supporting effect was observed even when various vitamins were added. 2. Inorganic substances: Many kinds of inorganic substances are contained, but the amount is small. Although the addition of acidic potassium phosphate (KH ₂ PO ₄ ) made fermentation a little more active, it was far from a fundamental solution, and magnesium sulfate (MgSO ₄ 7H ₂ O), sodium chloride, etc. had no effect at all. . 3. Natural products: Royal jelly and pollen are nutrients closely related to honey, but these can be used as they are.
Or, even when the mixture was decomposed with an oxygen agent and then added to fermentation, no fermentation-supporting effect was observed. 4. Yeast extract: Although alcohol fermentation was active, the produced liquor had a severe odor and did not pose a quality problem. Judging from the results of the above fermentation tests, the vitamins and minerals in honey are small in quantity, but there are many types, and although there is a tendency for phosphorus and potassium to be somewhat deficient, other components do not undergo alcoholic fermentation. They discovered that the fatal reason why honey does not ferment is due to a lack of nitrogen-containing components, and conducted further research to discover nitrogen-containing components suitable for honey fermentation. Ivy. As listed in Table 1, the nitrogen content in honey is extremely low, at 1/2.5 of grape juice in terms of protein.
If it is further diluted with water to adjust the sugar concentration to the same level as grape juice, the protein equivalent will be 0.05%, which is 10% of that of grape juice. Approximately half of the dry matter of yeast cells is made up of proteins, and nitrogen components are essential for the structure of the yeast cells.In order to compensate for the lack of nitrogen-containing components, the inventors of the present invention A wide range of experiments were conducted by adding proteins and their enzymatically decomposed products, inorganic nitrogen-containing components, and various amino acids. In addition, since the composition of honey differs depending on the production area and type, fermentation tests were repeated using various types of honey, including domestic, Chinese, Mexican, Argentine, Hungarian, etc., as well as various types of flowers such as astragalus, black locust, and clover. Ta. As a result, 1. When vegetable protein is added as it is, there is almost no effect; 2. When vegetable protein is added after hydrolyzing it with enzymes such as protease and acidic carboxypeptidase, it has a fermentation-stimulating effect. 3. The addition of inorganic nitrogen-containing compounds such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, and urea had some effect in assisting fermentation, but the flavor and flavor were inferior. Through numerous fermentation tests as described above, the present inventor has found that honey is an extremely delicate material, and that even small amounts of additives have a large effect on the quality of honey-fermented alcoholic beverages. We have learned that it is essential to consider not only quality but also quality. Fermentation Test 2 seems to have tested the overall effect of a mixture of over 20 l-amino acids obtained from natural proteins, but even though the fermentation-supporting effect was observed, the quality of the produced sake was poor. It was concluded that practical application was impossible. Among the more than 20 natural amino acids, there are some questions about which amino acids have a positive effect on fermentation support and quality, and which amino acids are bad, and the conditions under which individual amino acids are assimilated by yeast. Although reports have been published, to date, it has not been clarified how individual amino acids affect alcohol fermentation and how this affects the flavor and quality of alcoholic beverages. The present inventors conducted a fermentation test by adding each type of amino acid to honey in order to examine the influence of each amino acid on the alcoholic fermentation and quality of honey, and as a result, the present invention was completed. I've reached it. That is, in the present invention, when diluting honey with water and fermenting it by adding yeast, glycine, alanine,
valine, leucine, isoleucine, leucinine,
At least one of the following amino acids: serine, threonine, asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamine, glutamic acid, lysine, arginine, ornithine, tetruline, phenylalanine, tyrosine, or histidine, a salt of the above amino acid, and a peptide consisting of the above amino acid or a salt thereof is added. The present invention relates to a method for producing a honey-fermented alcoholic beverage characterized by the following. In the present invention, salts of amino acids include inorganic metal salts of the amino acids, such as sodium salts, potassium salts, magnesium salts, calcium salts, inorganic acid salts of the amino acids, such as hydrochlorides, phosphates, and organic acids of the amino acids. Salts such as acetate, and double salts of amino acids consisting of an acidic amino acid and a basic amino acid among the above amino acids, such as l-lysine l-aspartate, l-arginine l-aspartate, l-arginine l-glutamate, Anhydrous l-aspartate l-ornithine, l-lysine l-glutamate dihydrate, etc. can be used. In the present invention, examples of peptides consisting of amino acids include glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, leucinine, serine, threonine, asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamine, glutamic acid, lysine, arginine, ornithine, titrulline, and phenyl. Examples include peptides consisting of at least one of alanine, tyrosine, and histidine, and it is preferable to use oligopeptides having at least 2, and often 10 amino acid polymerization units. Furthermore, in the present invention, amino acids are preferably those designated as food additives by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, or those that are in the l-form and are accepted as natural products. Examples of the yeast used in the present invention include Sake Yeast Japan Brewing Association No. 7, No. 701, No. 9, and No. 901 of the Japan Brewing Association.
No. 10, No. 12, No. 13, Wine Yeast KW-
3, OC-2 etc. When carrying out the production method of the present invention, honey is diluted with water to a concentration of 15 to 40% by weight, and the amino acids added are preferably 0.2 to 0.5% by weight based on the aqueous solution, and preservatives such as lactic acid are added. Inorganic substances such as acidic potassium phosphate and the like can be added as appropriate. In addition, prior to fermentation, the fermentation mother liquor is
Heat sterilize at 92-120℃ for 5-20 minutes. Next, a more detailed explanation will be given based on the fermentation test of the present invention. Single amino acid fermentation test 22 types of single amino acids were added to domestic black locust honey at 0.4% each type, and KH ₂ PO ₄ 0.1
% was added to adjust the extract content to 24.6 (Baumé degree 12.4), sterilized in an autoclave at 120°C for 10 minutes, and after cooling, Japan Brewing Association Sake Yeast No. 901 was added and fermented at 15°C. The results are explained in Table 2.

【table】

[Table] As a result, it was found that the addition of each individual amino acid had the effect of promoting alcohol fermentation, and that the reason honey was thought not to ferment from ancient times was due to a lack of nitrogen-containing components. However, there were large differences in the extent and rate at which individual amino acids were assimilated by yeast No. 901, and the effect on quality was greater than initially expected. Conventional raw materials for fermented alcoholic beverages such as sake, beer, and wine contain sufficient nitrogen-containing components, so there is no need to consider the addition of amino acids or the like. Therefore, although there have been many studies on the amino acid metabolism of yeast as a result after the completion of fermentation, as in this study, individual amino acids were added to a nitrogen-containing component-deficient medium, and their assimilation, metabolic slowness, and quality aspects were investigated. has never been examined before. In other words, as a result of this test, there are six types of amino acids that are recognized to be particularly suitable for producing honey-fermented alcoholic beverages, as they are excellent in both fermentability and quality: valine, serine, lysine, arginine, asparagine, and aspartic acid. found. On the other hand, it was found that three types of sulfur-containing amino acids, cystine, cysteine, and methionine, and two types of heterocyclic amino acids, proline and tryptophan, were found to be inappropriate for use from a quality standpoint. . Cysteine and proline turned black during the test.Honey needs to be heat sterilized before fermentation, but at this stage the color has already turned black and will become darker during fermentation, so even if these two are present in small amounts, If it gets mixed in during the manufacturing process, it will inevitably spoil the color of honey-fermented alcoholic beverages. It was discovered that tryptophan also has an indole nucleus and is therefore easily colored by light. The flavor of honey-fermented alcoholic beverages is extremely sensitive to additives, and sulfur content is particularly unfavorable. All amino acid additions are effective in promoting fermentation, but all sulfur-containing amino acids are not acceptable in terms of quality. Methionine produces the most foul odor, followed by cysteine and cystine. The sulfur-containing amino acids in the honey fermentation liquid change to methyl mercaptan (rotting cabbage odor), diethyl sulfide (garlic odor), hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor), etc.
It cannot be considered a luxury item. A protein decomposition product always contains sulfur-containing amino acids in some proportion, and when an amino acid mixture resulting from proteolysis is used in the production of honey fermented liquor, it is difficult to obtain a product of good quality. Although they do not degrade quality as much as sulfur-containing amino acids, heterocyclic cyclic amino acids also have an unfavorable effect on honey fermentation. However, although histidine having an imidazole nucleus has the poorest fermentability, it still produces about three times as much alcohol as the control (no amino acid added) and is of acceptable quality, so the present invention can be implemented. Tryptophan often releases an unpleasant odor because it releases a small amount of indole nuclei during heat sterilization. The flavor of the produced liquor is poor, it is dull and astringent, and it is one of the amino acids unsuitable for honey fermentation. Proline, which has a pyrrolidine nucleus, is also difficult to assimilate by yeast No. 901, but the biggest defect is that it turns black, giving brewed sake a burnt smell. Therefore, it is not preferable to use both tryptophan and proline in honey fermentation. As explained above, among the 22 types of naturally occurring amino acids, 6 types are particularly preferable for fermenting honey, and 5 types are unsuitable. The remaining 10 types of amino acids have advantages and disadvantages in terms of both fermentability and quality, but all of them can be used to ferment honey to produce a honey-fermented alcoholic beverage, and can be used in the present invention. As explained above, in order to eliminate qualitatively inappropriate amino acids, it is impossible to use protein decomposition products, and the only option is to selectively utilize purified single amino acids and their derivatives. This is the only measure to improve the quality of honey-fermented alcoholic beverages and is a feature of the present invention. Three types of amino acid double salts are designated as food additives: l-arginine l-glutamate, l-lysine l-glutamate dihydrate, and l-lysine l-aspartate. . In addition to the individual amino acid addition tests in Table 1,
Fermentation tests were conducted on Chinese astragalus honey by adding a wide range of these double salts, double salts and single amino acids, and mixtures of two or more single amino acids.
The results showed that l-lysine l-aspartate was the best in both fermentation conditions and production quality. It is thought that the properties of both aspartic acid, which promotes fermentation in the early stage of fermentation, and lysine, which promotes fermentation in the latter half, are well balanced.
Double salt containing glutamic acid lost its flavor as fermentation progressed. Compared to the former two, l-lysine l-glutamate had slightly less fermentation ability and more residual sugar. In addition, in the mixing test, fermentation was particularly vigorous in the mixture containing valine, and a large amount of alcohol was released. In addition, when potassium acid phosphate (KH ₂ PO ₄ ) was added to these amino acids, fermentation was slightly more active than when it was not added, but no effect was observed when adding pantothenate or vitamins. Ta. The fermentation tests that led to the completion of the present invention have been described in detail above, and examples of the present invention will be described below. [Example] 243g of each of 8 types of domestic and imported honey.
Add 5g of arginine l-glutamate, 1g of potassium acid phosphate, 1.6ml of lactic acid and 826ml of water to make 1000ml.
A fermentation mother liquor was prepared. This mother liquor was heated at 120℃ for 10
After sterilization for a minute, it was cooled with water and inoculated with wine yeast KW-3 that had been pure cultured at a temperature of 20°C. After culturing at a room temperature of 18°C for 3 days, bubbles appeared and it was confirmed that fermentation had started, and then transferred to a water-cooled constant temperature bath at 6°C to continue fermentation at a low temperature. The product design of the honey fermented alcoholic beverage in this example is as follows:
The goal was to create a slightly sweet sake with a honey aroma with a low alcohol content of 5 to 8 degrees, so fermentation was stopped 18 days after yeast inoculation, when there was still residual sugar. The fermented liquid was filtered using a Millipore filter with a pore size of 0.4 microns to obtain the product honey fermented liquor.

[Table] All of the above eight examples had the same ingredients, but since the moisture content differed depending on the type of honey, there was some variation in the initial extract content. From the above examples, when the same type and the same amount of amino acids are added, domestically produced honey tends to ferment better than imported honey. In terms of quality, Chinese astragalus honey is the best, followed by domestic locust acacia and Chinese acacia, and it is difficult to expect high-quality honey fermented liquor from Chinese ELA honey. The honey-fermented liquors made from Chinese astragalus, acacia, domestic locust, clover from Argentina, acacia from Hungary, etc. produced in this example were fermented at low temperatures, so they had a good harmony of taste, and each retained the characteristics of the raw honey. In particular, if demand is developed targeting the women's market and the marriage market, it can be expected that it will have great prospects as a promising product in the future. Mead yeast is also produced as a by-product. The yeast cells and pollen that remain on the Millipore filter when the fermentation liquid passes through are expected to attract worldwide attention as the star of a health food product. The health images of honey, yeast, and pollen will overlap, and they will become extremely important as by-products. In addition, when carbon dioxide gas was injected into these honey fermented liquors to produce sparkling mead at a pressure of 1.6 kg/cm ² (20°C), the result was a sparkling mead with fine, white foam and good foam retention, giving it a refreshing feel. However, in this case as well, the one made from Chinese astragalus honey had the best aroma and taste. [Effects of the Invention] As explained in detail above, the present invention makes it possible to ferment honey, which has conventionally been considered difficult to ferment, without mixing fruit juice or malt.
It can be said that the fact that the original honey fermented liquor, which disappeared in the waves of 3,000 years of history, can be recreated in our country is truly a product of dreams and romance. Beer and wine are the main brewed alcoholic beverages in the West, but when we explore ancient history, we must include honey-fermented alcoholic beverages. Therefore, it can be said that the effect of the present invention is not simply the development of new products or improvement of manufacturing methods that are an extension of conventional alcoholic beverages, but also suggests the emergence of a new industry.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When honey is diluted with water and yeast is added to ferment it, glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, leucinine, serine, threonine, asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamine, glutamic acid, lysine, and arginine are added. , ornithine, tetrulline, phenylalanine, tyrosine or histidine, a salt of the amino acid, and a peptide consisting of the amino acid or a salt thereof. 2. The method for producing a honey-fermented alcoholic beverage according to claim 1, which uses amino acids that are designated as food additives by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare or are l-isomers and are accepted as natural products. 3. The manufacturing method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein carbon dioxide gas is further added after the fermentation.