White spirit aging method

Abstract

The invention discloses a white spirit aging method, and relates to the technical field of food processing. According to the baijiu aging method, in an aging container, an inert metal material serves as an electrode, and baijiu is treated through an electrochemical method. The inert metal material is used as the working electrode, and the alternating current voltammetry technology is adopted to age the white spirit, so that on one hand, substances in the white spirit can be prevented from being subjected to redox reaction on the electrode, and on the other hand, water, ethanol and flavor substances in the white spirit are electrochemically polarized, the association rate of the substances on the surface of the electrode is improved, and the aging of the white spirit is accelerated; the aging effect is good, the aged white spirit is mellow, sweet, soft, refreshing and clean in taste and has aging fragrance, the fragrance and style of raw wine are kept, the effect of cellaring for 5 years can be achieved after the white spirit is aged for 30 days, and the aging fragrance effect of cellaring for 10 years can be achieved after the white spirit is aged for 90 days; in addition, the method is low in cost of required consumables and equipment and low in energy consumption during aging, the daily power consumption for aging 1 ton of white spirit is lower than 0.5 kilowatt-hour, and the production cost of an enterprise is reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of food processing, and in particular to a liquor aging method. Background Art

[0002] Chinese liquor is one of the six major distilled liquors in the world. It has a unique position in terms of production technology and product style. Newly brewed liquor has a spicy smell, strong irritation, inconsistent aroma and accompanied by evil flavors. Therefore, newly distilled liquor must be stored in the cellar for a certain period of time to eliminate the new wine smell and increase the sense of aged wine. This aging (aging) process usually takes several years or even decades, which requires companies to add a large number of wine storage equipment, occupy warehouse space, and cause a large amount of capital backlog. In addition, the volatilization loss during storage is 3-6%. Therefore, the rapid aging of liquor has become a major problem that the liquor industry needs to solve urgently.

[0003] Many researchers believe that the mechanism of cellar aging of liquor is mainly the association of molecules in liquor. During the storage process of liquor, water and ethanol have strong association ability, and new molecular association groups are formed through association, so that more free ethanol molecules are bound, thereby reducing the stimulation of liquor on the taste organs, and the liquor will feel soft and less irritating. Therefore, the material composition of liquor hardly changes during the natural aging process. In recent years, many scholars have successively developed many aging technologies, such as physical methods such as heat, light, waves, and fields, chemical methods, biological methods, etc. However, some of these technologies accelerate the volatilization and loss of ethanol or flavor substances, and some promote chemical reactions in liquor, which ultimately lead to changes in the composition and style of liquor. For example, a Chinese patent with publication number CN 111518664A discloses a method for electrochemical oxidation aging of liquor. This method uses a chemically modified gold electrode with high catalytic activity to age the liquor. However, this method causes the new liquor to undergo an oxidation reaction to produce a large amount of substances, which reduces the alcohol content of the liquor, changes the material composition of the liquor, and causes a change in the style of the liquor.

[0004] Therefore, developing an aging method that can accelerate the aging of liquor without causing changes in the composition and style of the liquor is a technical problem that needs to be urgently solved in this field. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art that the liquor material composition and style change are easily caused to change significantly, and to provide a liquor aging method. The present invention uses an inert metal material as a working electrode and uses an AC voltammetry technique to age the liquor. On the one hand, it can prevent the substances in the liquor from undergoing redox reactions on the electrode, and on the other hand, it can increase the rate of their association on the electrode surface by electrochemically polarizing the water, ethanol and flavor substances in the liquor, thereby accelerating the aging of the liquor. The aging method has a good aging effect, and the aged liquor tastes mellow, sweet, soft, refreshing, and has an aged aroma, and maintains the aroma and style of the original liquor.

[0006] In order to achieve the above technical objectives, the present invention mainly adopts the following technical solutions:

[0007] The invention discloses a liquor aging method. In an aging container, an inert metal material is used as an electrode and the liquor is treated by an electrochemical method.

[0008] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inert metal material is selected from any one of stainless steel, metal aluminum and its alloys, metal titanium and its alloys, metal zirconium and its alloys.

[0009] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the dimensions of the inert metal material are 10 to 200 cm in length, 10 to 200 cm in width, and 0.01 to 10 mm in thickness.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inert metal material forms symmetrical electrodes in the aging container, serving as both a working electrode and a reference electrode and an auxiliary electrode. The size of the aging container should ensure that the electrodes are completely immersed in the liquor.

[0011] Furthermore, the distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode is 0.5-2 cm.

[0012] Furthermore, the ratio of the area of ​​the working electrode to the volume of the liquor to be aged is 1:0.02-2 (m 2 / m 3 ).

[0013] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the electrochemical method is continuous linear sweep alternating current voltammetry.

[0014] Preferably, the voltage scanning range of the linear scanning AC voltammetry is -(1+2*R*10 -5 )~+(1+2*R*10 -5 )V; potential step height 0.001~0.05V, step time 0.01~10s, AC signal frequency 0.01~1000Hz; wherein, R is the charge transfer resistance of liquor, in ohms / cm 2, represents the electrochemical activity of liquor, and is obtained by using the AC impedance method.

[0015] Furthermore, the conditions for testing the charge transfer resistance of liquor by AC impedance method are as follows: the potential is open circuit potential, the frequency is 1M~0.001Hz, and the AC amplitude is 5~200mV.

[0016] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the electrochemical treatment time is 20 to 90 days.

[0017] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0018] (1) The aging method provided by the present invention can prevent substances in liquor from undergoing redox reactions on the electrode surface, and the composition and style of the liquor will not change after aging;

[0019] (2) The aging method provided by the present invention greatly promotes the aggregation of flavor substances in liquor on the electrode surface by modulating the frequency of AC voltammetry, accelerates the rate of their association with ethanol and water molecules, and makes the aged liquor taste soft, mellow, sweet and refreshing;

[0020] (3) The present invention greatly shortens the aging time. By adopting this method, liquor aged for 30 days can achieve the effect of being stored in a cellar for 5 years, and liquor aged for 90 days can achieve the effect of being stored in a cellar for 10 years.

[0021] (4) The cost of consumables and equipment required for the method of the present invention is low, the cost of electrode preparation is less than 3,000 yuan, and the energy consumption during aging is low. The daily electricity consumption for aging 1 ton of liquor is less than 0.5 degrees, which greatly saves energy and reduces the production cost of the enterprise. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are described clearly and completely below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are protected by the present invention.

[0023] Example 1

[0024] A method for aging liquor comprises the following steps:

[0025] (1) 316L stainless steel was used as the electrode material and processed into two electrodes of 5 cm*5 cm*0.01 cm. One electrode was used as the working electrode and the other electrode was used as the auxiliary electrode and reference electrode. The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode was 1 cm. The electrodes were placed in an aging container and 2 L of newly distilled liquor was added to ensure that the electrodes were completely immersed in the liquor.

[0026] (2) The electrochemical activity of liquor was tested by AC impedance method. The test conditions were: open circuit potential, frequency of 100,000 Hz to 0.1 Hz, AC amplitude of 50 mV, and the charge transfer resistance of liquor was 48,000 ohms / cm. 2 ;

[0027] (3) The liquor was treated by continuous linear scanning AC voltammetry, wherein the conditions of the linear scanning AC voltammetry were: scanning voltage range -1.96 to 1.96 V, potential step height 0.03 V, step time 0.5 s, AC signal frequency 0.5 Hz, and treatment time 35 days.

[0028] Example 2

[0029] A method for aging liquor comprises the following steps:

[0030] (1) Using 1050 series aluminum alloy as the electrode material, two electrodes with a size of 10 cm*10 cm*0.02 cm were processed, one of which was used as the working electrode and the other as the auxiliary electrode and reference electrode. The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode was 1.5 cm. They were placed in an aging container and 3 L of newly distilled liquor was added to ensure that the electrodes were completely immersed in the liquor.

[0031] (2) The electrochemical activity of liquor was tested by AC impedance method. The test conditions were: open circuit potential, frequency of 10,000 Hz to 1 Hz, AC amplitude of 100 mV, and the charge transfer resistance of liquor was 65,000 ohms / cm 2 ;

[0032] (3) The liquor was treated by continuous linear scanning AC voltammetry, wherein the conditions of the linear scanning AC voltammetry were: scanning voltage range -2.25 to 2.35 V, potential step height 0.05 V, step time 1 s, AC signal frequency 0.2 Hz, and treatment time 45 days.

[0033] Example 3

[0034] A method for aging liquor comprises the following steps:

[0035] (1) Using zirconium-niobium alloy as the electrode material, two electrodes with a size of 10 cm*10 cm*0.005 cm were processed, one of which was used as the working electrode and the other as the auxiliary electrode and reference electrode. The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode was 1 cm. The electrodes were placed in an aging container and 2 L of newly distilled liquor was added to ensure that the electrodes were completely immersed in the liquor.

[0036] (2) The electrochemical activity of liquor was tested by AC impedance method. The test conditions were: open circuit potential, frequency of 100,000 Hz to 1 Hz, AC amplitude of 2000 mV, and the charge transfer resistance of liquor was 83,000 ohms / cm 2 ;

[0037] (3) The liquor was treated by continuous linear scanning AC voltammetry, wherein the conditions of the linear scanning AC voltammetry were: scanning voltage range -2.66 to 2.66 V, potential step height 0.15 V, step time 1 s, AC signal frequency 0.1 Hz, and treatment time 25 days.

[0038] Example 4

[0039] A method for aging liquor comprises the following steps:

[0040] (1) Using titanium aluminum alloy as the electrode material, two electrodes of 4 cm*4 cm*0.03 cm were processed, one of which was used as the working electrode and the other as the auxiliary electrode and reference electrode. The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode was 1.5 cm. They were placed in an aging container and 1 L of newly distilled liquor was added to ensure that the electrodes were completely immersed in the liquor.

[0041] (2) The electrochemical activity of liquor was tested by AC impedance method. The test conditions were: open circuit potential, frequency of 10000 Hz to 1 Hz, AC amplitude of 20 mV, and the charge transfer resistance of liquor was 25000 ohm / cm. 2 ;

[0042] (3) The liquor was treated by continuous linear scanning AC voltammetry, wherein the conditions of the linear scanning AC voltammetry were: scanning voltage range -1.5 to 1.5 V, potential step height 0.1 V, step time 2 s, AC signal frequency 0.5 Hz, and treatment time 90 days.

[0043] Comparative Example 1

[0044] The difference between Comparative Example 1 and Example 1 is that the electrode material used is gold, and the specific implementation steps are as follows:

[0045] (1) Using gold as the electrode material, cut a 0.01 cm thick gold foil into two 5 cm * 5 cm * 0.01 cm electrodes, one of which is used as the working electrode, and the other is used as the auxiliary electrode and reference electrode. The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode is 1 cm. Place them in an aging container and add 2 L of newly distilled liquor to ensure that the electrodes are completely immersed in the liquor;

[0046] (2) The electrochemical activity of liquor was tested by AC impedance method. The test conditions were: open circuit potential, frequency of 100,000 Hz to 0.1 Hz, AC amplitude of 50 mV, and the charge transfer resistance of liquor was 3000 ohms / cm. 2 ;

[0047] (3) The liquor was treated by continuous linear scanning AC voltammetry, wherein the conditions of the linear scanning AC voltammetry were: scanning voltage range -1 to 1 V, potential step height 0.03 V, step time 0.5 s, AC signal frequency 0.5 Hz, and treatment time 35 days.

[0048] Comparative Example 2

[0049] The difference between Comparative Example 1 and Example 2 is that the same material is used as the electrode, and different electrochemical methods are used to age the liquor. The specific implementation steps are as follows:

[0050] (1) Using 316L stainless steel as the electrode material, an electrode of 5 cm*5 cm*0.01 cm was processed and used as the working electrode. A platinum mesh was used as the working electrode and silver / silver chloride was used as the reference electrode to form a three-electrode system. The three-electrode system was placed in an aging container containing new wine, and the voltammetric curve was tested in the range of -1 to 0 V, and its reduction potential was recorded as -0.95 V;

[0051] (2) Oxidation aging: The three-electrode system was placed in an aging container containing new wine, with the new wine loading amount being 40-60% of the container volume, ensuring that all electrodes were immersed in the wine. The chronoamperometry was used, with the oxidation voltage set at -0.25 V, and the initial potential reaction current recorded as 0.8 mA;

[0052] (3) Stop catalysis: When the reaction current increases to 1.2 mA, stop catalysis.

[0053] Test example

[0054] The main component content, total acid and total ester of the aged liquors of Examples 1-4 and Comparative Examples 1-2 were tested respectively. The results are shown in Table 1 below.

[0055] Table 1 Contents of main components of liquor in Examples 1-4 and initial liquor.

[0056] initial Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Comparative Example 1 Comparative Example 2 Acetaldehyde (mg / 100mL) 48.28 43.27 45.60 48.03 42.55 70.3 52.8 n-Propanol (mg / 100mL) 57.56 62.13 60.48 60.00 55.95 35.55 43.5 Ethyl acetate (mg / 100mL) 325.86 345.51 336.30 343.81 307.26 160.73 247.39 Sec-Butanol (mg / 100mL) 9.72 10.49 10.22 10.18 9.57 7.57 8.57 Isobutanol (mg / 100mL) 6.98 7.56 7.32 7.26 6.91 6.931 5.91 n-Butanol (mg / 100mL) 56.68 61.47 59.95 59.31 56.15 30.54 41.35 Acetic acid (mg / 100mL) 94.40 91.12 96.27 95.53 93.27 140.82 120.68 Isoamyl alcohol (mg / 100mL) 20.60 22.24 21.59 21.45 20.97 15.06 16.33 Ethyl butyrate (mg / 100mL) 14.52 15.79 15.58 15.55 14.48 12.48 13.87 Ethyl lactate (mg / 100mL) 138.26 140.80 142.40 138.03 136.53 137.24 139.92 Ethyl valerate (mg / 100mL) 16.03 17.44 17.13 16.92 16.06 15.03 13.06 Ethyl hexanoate (mg / 100mL) 276.06 295.12 292.77 286.87 271.61 191.28 171.31 Alcohol content (%, V / V) 74.2 74.3 74.0 74.2 74.3 65 68 Total acid (g / L) 1.41 1.38 1.47 1.31 1.43 2.45 1.89 Total esters (g / L) 3.17 3.12 3.05 3.16 3.07 1.93 2.14

[0057] As can be seen from Table 1, the contents of the main components of Examples 1-4 remain basically unchanged, indicating that the aging method promotes the aging of liquor through a physical process without changing the substance type and content of the liquor, and can maintain the aroma and style of the liquor. However, in Comparative Examples 1 and 2, the concentrations of various alcohols, aldehydes and esters in the liquor changed significantly, and the alcohol content and total esters of the liquor also decreased significantly, and the total acid increased, indicating that the composition of the liquor in the comparative example has changed.

[0058] The sensory evaluation of the treated liquor was carried out. The evaluation team randomly selected 10 people from the research institute to conduct sensory evaluation and took the average value. The results are shown in Table 2:

[0059] Table 2 Sensory evaluation of liquor

[0060]

[0061]

[0062] It can be seen from Table 2 above that the color, aroma and taste of the liquor catalyzed and aged by the present invention are basically consistent with those of the liquor naturally aged for 5 years, and the aging effect of 5 years of cellaring can be achieved.

[0063] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention rather than to limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that the technical solution of the present invention can be modified or replaced by equivalents without departing from the essence and scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims

1. A liquor aging method, characterized in that: In the aging container, the liquor is treated by electrochemical methods using inert metal materials as electrodes.

2. The liquor aging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The inert metal material is selected from any one of stainless steel, metal aluminum and its alloys, metal titanium and its alloys, metal zirconium and its alloys.

3. The liquor aging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The dimensions of the inert metal material are 10 to 200 cm in length, 10 to 200 cm in width, and 0.01 to 10 mm in thickness.

4. The liquor aging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The inert metal material forms a symmetrical electrode in the aging container, serving as a working electrode, a reference electrode and an auxiliary electrode.

5. The liquor aging method according to claim 4, characterized in that: The distance between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode is 0.5-2 cm.

6. The liquor aging method according to claim 4, characterized in that: The ratio of the area of ​​the working electrode to the volume of the liquor to be aged is 1:0.02-2 (m 2 / m 3 ).

7. The liquor aging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electrochemical method is continuous linear sweep alternating current voltammetry.

8. The liquor aging method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The voltage scanning range of the linear scanning AC voltammetry is -(1+2*R*10 -5 )~+(1+2*R*10 -5 )V; potential step height 0.001~0.05V, step time 0.01~10s, AC signal frequency 0.01~1000Hz; wherein, R is the charge transfer resistance of liquor, in ohms / cm 2 , represents the electrochemical activity of liquor, and is obtained by using the AC impedance method.

9. The liquor aging method according to claim 8, characterized in that: The conditions for testing the charge transfer resistance of liquor by AC impedance method are as follows: the potential is open circuit potential, the frequency is 1M~0.001Hz, and the AC amplitude is 5~200mV.

10. The liquor aging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electrochemical treatment time is 20 to 90 days.

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