Shelf type pu'er tea off-ground automatic continuous fermentation equipment and process

Abstract

The invention discloses shelf type pu'er tea liftoff automatic continuous fermentation equipment and process, and belongs to the technical field of pu'er tea fermentation. The equipment comprises a fermentation layer frame, the fermentation layer frame is provided with multiple layers of fermentation beds, to-be-fermented tea leaves are stacked on the fermentation beds for fermentation, each fermentation bed comprises a conveying type bed body, and the tea leaves on every two adjacent layers of fermentation beds are circulated through rotation of the conveying type bed bodies; the deblocking assembly is arranged at the discharging end of the conveying type bed body, and the deblocking assembly is used for deblocking tea piles; the circulating conveying line is used for receiving the tea leaves conveyed out of the fermentation layer frame, rehydrating the tea leaves and then conveying the rehydrated tea leaves back to the fermentation layer frame for circulating fermentation or outputting and packaging the fermented tea leaves; the controller is in communication connection or electric connection with the fermentation bed, the deblocking assembly and the circulating conveying line so as to control the fermentation bed, the deblocking assembly and the circulating conveying line to start and stop operation; the Pu'er tea fermentation can be operated in a one-button mode, and the whole process of water adding, enzyme preparation, bacterial liquid adding, pile turning, feeding and discharging is automatic.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to rack-type off-ground automatic continuous fermentation equipment for Pu'er tea and a process thereof, belonging to the technical field of Pu'er tea fermentation. Background Art

[0002] The pile fermentation of Pu'er tea and other dark teas belongs to the solid-state deep fermentation technology. After adding water to the dark tea, the pile is piled up to form a fermentation pile with a length of 10-20m, a width of 5-10m, and a height of 1-2m. It is then left to ferment statically. The pile is turned over every 5-7 days to break up the clumped tea leaves, so that the tea leaves in the middle and around the pile can be evenly mixed, and the oxygen supply in the pile can be improved to meet the aerobic needs of various microorganisms. The whole pile of tea can be fermented evenly from top to bottom and from left to right. A fermentation cycle takes about 2-3 months.

[0003] Currently, dark tea pile fermentation is primarily achieved manually by digging piles on the ground, with a very low degree of mechanization. Most production tools are rakes and shovels, with a small number of fermentation tanks using rotary stirring. These tank-type fermentation systems integrate the turning mechanism within the fermenter, leading to uneven turning, uneven rehydration, numerous lumps, and difficulty in cleaning. This makes large-scale application impossible. Furthermore, oversized fermenters can lead to poor local heat dissipation and fail to simultaneously meet the fermentation requirements for temperature, humidity, and ventilation. This results in difficult fermentation management, high labor intensity, low overall production quality, and poor product quality stability. Therefore, it is urgent to explore solid-state deep-layer automated fermentation machines and develop new processing equipment to improve the efficiency and quality of dark tea fermentation.

[0004] Furthermore, the existing fermentation technology for Pu'er tea and other dark teas relies on flooding during the tidal phase, resulting in low uniformity and accuracy. The manual turning and cooling of the piles during fermentation is extremely inefficient and cannot effectively control the quality of the ripe Pu'er tea. Furthermore, ground-based fermentation prevents clean production, which is achieved through off-site fermentation. Existing fermentation technology using strain addition relies on manual mixing and stirring, which is inefficient and susceptible to environmental influences on fermentation quality. It is only added as a dominant strain in the early stages of fermentation, and after a long fermentation period, its effect is not noticeable in the later stages. The addition of mold in the early stages of fermentation results in an overly intense fermentation process, excessively high pile temperatures, and accumulated heat in the core, which leads to excessive depletion of tea quality. Furthermore, the survival rate of the added strains cannot be guaranteed, preventing them from achieving their continued fermentation benefits in subsequent fermentation stages. Chinese invention patent application number 202411057003.9 discloses a solid-state deep-layer automated fermentation machine and fermentation method for Liubao tea. While this invention achieves off-site fermentation of Liubao tea through the use of equipment structure, it focuses more on the equipment structure itself, and the fermentation method itself needs improvement. Summary of the Invention

[0005] (1) Technical issues to be resolved The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to address the issues that the existing pile fermentation of dark teas such as Pu-erh tea is basically achieved by manually piling on the ground, with a very low degree of mechanized production, difficult fermentation management, high labor intensity, low overall level, and poor product quality stability.

[0006] (II) Technical Solution To solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation device for Pu-erh tea off the ground, which includes: A fermentation shelf, which is provided with multiple fermentation beds. The tea leaves to be fermented are stacked on the fermentation beds for fermentation. The fermentation bed includes a conveyor bed body, and the tea leaves on adjacent two fermentation beds are circulated by rotating through the conveyor bed body; A lump-breaking component, which is arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor bed body and is used for breaking up the tea pile; A circulating conveyor line, which is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed out by the fermentation shelf, then rehydrate them and convey them back to the fermentation shelf for cyclic fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; A controller, which is respectively communicatively connected or electrically connected to the fermentation bed, the lump-breaking component, and the circulating conveyor line to control their starting and stopping operations.

[0007] Furthermore, the fermentation bed further includes a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, and a height sensor. A plurality of temperature sensors and humidity sensors are evenly arrayed along the length direction of the fermentation bed, and the height sensor is arranged at the feed end of the fermentation bed. The temperature sensor, the humidity sensor, and the height sensor are respectively communicatively connected to the controller.

[0008] Furthermore, all the fermentation beds of the fermentation shelf are evenly arranged from top to bottom, and for adjacent two fermentation beds, the discharge end of one is located above the feed end of the other; the conveyor bed body adopts a conveyor belt structure, and dense air holes are arranged thereon.

[0009] Furthermore, the circulating conveyor line is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed out by the lowermost fermentation bed of the fermentation shelf, then rehydrate them and convey them back to the uppermost fermentation bed of the fermentation shelf for cyclic fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; the circulating conveyor line adopts a conveyor belt structure, and the circulating conveyor line includes a rehydration spraying device.

[0010] Furthermore, the circulating conveyor line further includes a first horizontal conveyor belt, a first vertical conveyor belt, a second horizontal conveyor belt, a third horizontal conveyor belt, and a second vertical conveyor belt. The first horizontal conveyor belt, the first vertical conveyor belt, the second horizontal conveyor belt, the third horizontal conveyor belt, and the second vertical conveyor belt are successively connected end to end to form a C-shaped conveying structure to convey the tea leaves conveyed out by the lowermost fermentation bed of the fermentation shelf back to the uppermost fermentation bed of the fermentation shelf for cyclic fermentation.

[0011] Further, a three-way distributor is provided at the discharge end of the second horizontal conveyor belt, and the tea leaves coming out of the second horizontal conveyor belt are guided to the third horizontal conveyor belt or exported from the circulating conveyor line through the three-way distributor; the rehydration spraying device is arranged at the second horizontal conveyor belt, and the rehydration spraying device includes a plurality of atomizing nozzles and a conveying pipe network uniformly arranged above the second horizontal conveyor belt. All the atomizing nozzles are connected through the conveying pipe network, and a flow meter is arranged on the conveying pipe network. The present invention also provides a shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation process for Pu-erh tea off the ground, which uses the above-mentioned shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation equipment for Pu-erh tea off the ground for fermentation, and includes the following steps: S1. Feeding: The tea leaves are evenly spread on the fermentation bed through the circulating conveyor line, the stacking height is ≥1 m, the feeding thickness is consistent and evenly distributed, and rehydration is carried out synchronously during the feeding process, and the water content requirement is 30%-35%; S2. Fermentation: Static fermentation, and the pile is turned over once every 5-7 days; S3. Drying and ventilation: After the tea leaves reach the fermentation maturity, through multiple pile turning, the tea pile is disassembled and conveyed by rolling, so that the moisture content of the material naturally drops to 15%, and the fermentation ends; Furthermore, in the step S2, the fermentation is divided into three large cycles: the early stage, the middle stage, and the late stage. Among them, the early stage and the late stage each include two small cycles, and the middle stage includes three small cycles, for a total of seven small cycles. A pile turning and rehydration are carried out at the end of each small cycle; in the two small cycles of the early stage, each small cycle ferments for 5 days, in the three small cycles of the middle stage, each small cycle ferments for 7 days, and in the two small cycles of the late stage, each small cycle ferments for 5 days.

[0012] Furthermore, in the step S2, pectinase, cellulase, and mold are added in the early stage, bacillus and protease preparation are added in the middle stage, and yeast is added in the late stage; the enzyme preparation and the bacterial liquid are dissolved in water and then added, and after uniform rehydration through the rehydration spraying device and pile turning, fermentation is carried out.

[0013] Furthermore, in the step S2, the addition of cellulase, pectinase, and mold is carried out in the first small cycle of the early stage, the addition of bacillus and protease is carried out in the first small cycle of the middle stage, and the addition of yeast is carried out in the first small cycle of the late stage. The addition amount of the enzyme preparation is 2 g / kg according to the tea quality ratio, and the addition amount of the bacterial strain is calculated according to the bacterial liquid density at 10 7 cfu / ml or 10 ml / kg.

[0014] (III) Beneficial effects The above technical solutions of the present invention have the following advantages: The present invention integrates enzyme fermentation technology, strain enhanced fermentation technology, and combines with automated tea fermentation equipment technology to achieve one-key Pu-erh tea fermentation operation. All processes such as water addition, enzyme preparation, bacterial liquid, turning the pile, feeding, and discharging are fully automated. Compared with traditional fermentation technologies that rely on manual experience and have uncontrollable temperature and humidity conditions, the fermentation operation of dark teas such as Erh tea in the present invention can be industrialized and standardized. By adding enzyme preparations and enhancing strain fermentation, quality stability and process standardization can be achieved, with the advantage of a revolutionary leap in technology.

[0015] Equipment advantages: (1) The equipment of the present invention can realize automatic mechanical feeding and discharging of tea fermentation raw materials, automatic quantitative water rehydration, automatic addition of enzyme and bacterial liquid according to procedures, and automatic and efficient turning of the pile; (2) According to technical requirements, composite preparations such as enzyme preparations and bacterial liquid can be added to tea raw materials in the water rehydration link. The enzyme preparation and bacterial liquid can be evenly mixed and then the aqueous solution can be evenly added to the tea, or they can be automatically added according to the sequence requirements according to the fermentation cycle of the tea and complete the automatic turning of the pile in the tea fermentation tank.

[0016] The present invention has high uniformity and accuracy in water content adjustment, improved efficiency in fermentation turning and discharging and cooling, and can effectively control the quality of ripe Pu-erh tea; and realizes clean production of fermentation off the ground. The strain addition fermentation technology has high efficiency and is not easily affected by the environment in terms of fermentation quality; the effect is still obvious in the later stage after long-term fermentation; the fermentation process is mild, the pile temperature is not high, the core of the pile is not prone to heat accumulation, the tea quality will not be excessively consumed, and the survival rate of the added strains can be guaranteed, and the continuous fermentation advantage effect can be exerted in the subsequent stage of fermentation.

[0017] The present invention integrates the processes of feeding, water rehydration, static fermentation, automatic turning of the pile, automatic water replenishment, and automatic drying to form an integrated solid-state deep-layer automatic tea fermentation machine, which can meet the requirements of temperature, humidity, and air for dark tea fermentation at the same time, eliminating manual control and manual turning of the pile, improving the overall fermentation level, and stabilizing the quality of the product.

[0018] In addition to the technical problems solved by the present invention described above, the technical features of the technical solutions constituted, and the advantages brought by these technical features of the technical solutions, other technical features of the present invention and the advantages brought by these technical features will be further described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Description of the Drawings

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the following drawings are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative efforts.

[0020] Figure 1This is a top view schematic diagram of the fermentation equipment (two-layer fermentation bed) of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 2 This is a side view schematic diagram of the fermentation equipment (two-layer fermentation bed) of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 3 This is an isometric view schematic diagram of the fermentation equipment (one-layer fermentation bed) of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 4 This is an isometric view schematic diagram of the baffle (side railing) of the fermentation equipment of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 5 This is an isometric view schematic diagram of the baffle (side railing) of the fermentation equipment of the present invention from another perspective.

[0025] Figure 6 This is an isometric view schematic diagram of the tooth-pulling assembly of the fermentation equipment of the present invention.

[0026] Figure 7 This is the comparison of tea pigment detection between the control group, the new process group, and the new process equipment group.

[0027] Figure 8 This is the comparison of flavonoids and amino acid detection between the control group, the new process group, and the new process equipment group.

[0028] In the figure: 1. Fermentation layer rack; 2. Fermentation bed; 3. Conveyor bed; 4. Unblocking assembly; 5. Circulating conveyor line; 6. Rehydration spraying device; 7. First horizontal conveyor belt; 8. First vertical conveyor belt; 9. Second horizontal conveyor belt; 10. Third horizontal conveyor belt; 11. Second vertical conveyor belt; 12. Three-way distributor; 13. Tooth-pulling assembly; 14. Baffle. Detailed implementation manners

[0029] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0030] In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that unless otherwise clearly specified and defined, the terms "installation", "connection", and "coupling" shall be understood in a broad sense. For example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, and it can be the communication inside two components. For those of ordinary skill in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0031] Example 1, as Figure 1-2 shown, a shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation device for Pu-erh tea off the ground, which includes: A fermentation shelf 1 (fermentation main frame), the fermentation shelf 1 is provided with multiple fermentation beds 2. In this embodiment, specifically, two fermentation beds 2 are taken as an example, but it can be understood that it can also be set to three layers, four layers, etc. Of course, it can also be set to a single-layer structure, as Figure 3 shown. The tea leaves to be fermented are stacked on the fermentation bed 2 for fermentation, that is, stacking and fermentation are respectively carried out on each fermentation bed 2. The fermentation bed 2 includes a conveyor bed body 3 (usually also includes baffles 14 arranged on both sides of the conveyor bed body 3, as Figure 4 , 5 shown, so as to facilitate the stacking height of the tea leaves on the fermentation bed 2. At the same time, the baffle can be designed into a slidable and open structure, so as to adjust and improve the oxygen supply situation of the piled-up tea leaves on the fermentation bed 2, reduce the turning resistance, and increase the oxygen supply device. Through the movable side plate device, the fermented material is separated from the side wall in advance, preventing the side plate from sticking to the material, reducing the forward resistance during the turning process, and increasing the ventilation volume of the material during the fermentation period.). The conveyor bed body 3 can rotate to make its upper bearing surface move horizontally, so as to realize the feeding and discharging of materials. The tea leaves on adjacent two fermentation beds 2 are circulated by the rotation of the conveyor bed body 3. The circulation means that the tea leaves fall from a certain fermentation bed 2 onto an adjacent fermentation bed 2, and the first turning can be realized.

[0032] A deblocking assembly 4 is arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor bed body 3. The deblocking assembly 4 is used to break up and deblock the tea leaves that are agglomerated, so that the tea leaves in the middle and around the pile can be mixed evenly, improve the oxygen supply situation inside the pile, so as to meet the aerobic requirements of various microorganisms, and make the whole pile of tea leaves ferment evenly up and down, left and right. The deblocking assembly 4 can be a structure provided with multiple rotating shafts and dense deblocking spikes on the rotating shafts. The deblocking assembly 4 first disassembles the materials on the fermentation bed 2 through a tooth rake structure and then drops them to the next layer. This structure can break up the agglomerated materials but will not break the tea leaves. The deblocking should be thorough, and the materials should be evenly mixed after deblocking, and the upper, middle, and lower layers can also be mixed. Solve the problems that the tea leaves are easy to bridge and hook when the Pu-erh tea is discharged.

[0033] The circulating conveyor line 5 is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed by the fermentation rack 1, rehydrate them, and then convey them back to the fermentation rack 1 for circulating fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; thus realizing automatic continuous circulating fermentation and fermentation off the ground.

[0034] The controller (not shown in the drawings) is respectively communicatively connected or electrically connected to the fermentation bed 2, the deblocking assembly 4, and the circulating conveyor line 5 to control their starting and stopping operations. The controller can directly adopt existing technical means and will not be elaborated here.

[0035] Equipment layout and production capacity: The total floor area of the equipment is 21 meters in length, 5 meters in width, and 9 meters in height. The designed production capacity per batch is 10 tons, the fermentation cycle is 40d - 50d, and the designed annual processing production capacity is 50 tons - 60 tons.

[0036] Embodiment 2. This embodiment further optimizes and refines the structure of the fermentation rack 1 on the basis of Embodiment 1. Specifically: In this embodiment, the fermentation bed 2 further includes a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, and a height sensor (not shown in the drawings and can be set by conventional technical means). A plurality of temperature sensors and humidity sensors are evenly arranged in an array along the length direction of the fermentation bed 2, and the height sensor is arranged at the feeding end of the fermentation bed 2. The temperature sensor, the humidity sensor, and the height sensor are respectively communicatively connected to the controller. The temperature sensor and the humidity sensor are used to monitor the tea leaf fermentation environment in real time and perform operations such as turning the pile in a timely manner. The height sensor is used to control the stacking height of the tea leaves on the fermentation bed 2 to make the stacking flat and uniform.

[0037] In this embodiment, one of the settings for the tea leaves on adjacent two layers of the fermentation bed 2 to circulate by rotating the conveyor bed body 3 is as follows: All the fermentation beds 2 of the fermentation rack 1 are evenly arranged from top to bottom, and for adjacent two layers of fermentation beds 2, the discharge end of one is located above the feeding end of the other; the conveyor bed body 3 adopts a conveyor belt structure and is provided with dense air holes thereon.

[0038] It can be understood that all the conveyor bed bodies 3 of the fermentation beds 2 on the same fermentation rack 1 can be interconnected by a belt drive structure, and then driven by a driving motor to operate, saving resources and reducing costs. One way to set dense air holes on it can be: after punching a stainless steel plate with a thickness of 1.5 - 3 mm and a width of 100 mm, it is connected by hinges. A guide wheel is added in the middle of each iron plate to assist the side sprocket to drive the entire conveyor line to operate. During the operation of the conveyor line, each stainless steel plate folds and moves forward at the hinge, and the materials adhering to the bottom are thus dropped off. Combining this with adding guide wheels in the middle can achieve the forward movement with a load of more than 10 tons of materials. Solve the problem of material adhesion on the bottom plate of the piling heap, and increase the thickness and weighing of the materials piled up deeply in the fermentation bed 2.

[0039] Embodiment 3. This embodiment further optimizes and refines the structure of the circulating conveyor line 5 on the basis of Embodiment 2. Specifically: The circulating conveyor line 5 is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed out from the fermentation bed 2 at the lowest layer of the fermentation rack 1, then rehydrate them and convey them back to the fermentation bed 2 at the uppermost layer of the fermentation rack 1 for cyclic fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; the circulating conveyor line 5 adopts a conveyor belt structure, and the circulating conveyor line 5 includes a rehydration spraying device 6 for making up water through the rehydration spraying device 6.

[0040] A more specific structure of the circulating conveyor line 5 is: the circulating conveyor line 5 further includes a first transverse conveyor belt 7, a first longitudinal conveyor belt 8, a second transverse conveyor belt 9, a third transverse conveyor belt 10 and a second longitudinal conveyor belt 11. The first transverse conveyor belt 7, the first longitudinal conveyor belt 8, the second transverse conveyor belt 9, the third transverse conveyor belt 10 and the second longitudinal conveyor belt 11 are sequentially connected end to end to form a C-shaped conveying structure to convey the tea leaves conveyed out from the fermentation bed 2 at the lowest layer of the fermentation rack 1 back to the fermentation bed 2 at the uppermost layer of the fermentation rack 1 for cyclic fermentation. A tooth-picking component 13 can also be set on the circulating conveyor line 5, as Figure 6 shown. The above-mentioned transverse and longitudinal refer to the conveying directions of the whole single conveyor belt. Transverse means that it conveys materials in the front-back direction, and of course, its conveying process can be upward or downward. Longitudinal also means that it conveys materials in the left-right direction, and of course, its conveying process can be upward or downward.

[0041] A more specific structure of the circular conveyor line 5 is as follows: A three-way distributor 12 is provided at the discharge end of the second horizontal conveyor belt 9. Through the three-way distributor 12, the tea leaves coming out of the second horizontal conveyor belt 9 are guided onto the third horizontal conveyor belt 10 or exported from the circular conveyor line 5. The three-way distributor 12 may be, for example, provided with three communication ports. The three communication ports correspond to the discharge end of the second horizontal conveyor belt 9, the feed end of the third horizontal conveyor belt 10, and the outside of the circular conveyor line 5 respectively. A reversing valve is provided at the intersection of the three communication ports. The reversing valve adopts an electric control structure and is electrically connected to the controller. By means of the reversing valve, only two of the three communication ports of the three-way distributor 12 are kept communicating at the same time, so as to realize guiding the tea leaves coming out of the second horizontal conveyor belt 9 onto the third horizontal conveyor belt 10 to participate in the next process of fermentation or exporting from the circular conveyor line 5 for packing.

[0042] The rehydration spraying device 6 is arranged at the second horizontal conveyor belt 9. The rehydration spraying device 6 includes a plurality of atomizing nozzles uniformly arranged above the second horizontal conveyor belt 9 and a conveying pipe network (not shown in the drawings and can be set by conventional technical means). All the atomizing nozzles are connected through the conveying pipe network. A flow meter is arranged on the conveying pipe network to realize the function of replenishing water while feeding materials, uniformly rehydrating, and the rehydration amount is controllable. The specific method is as follows: According to the process control requirements, the moisture of the turned-over materials is measured, the water replenishment amount is calculated, and after passing through the water replenishment device (rehydration spraying device 6), the water replenishment operation is carried out. The requirement is that the moisture error detected at the sampling point should be less than 3%, and the rehydration nozzles achieve a large atomizing fan surface without obvious water flow overflow.

[0043] The equipment of this application has a higher degree of automation, is more convenient to operate, the stacking amount per unit area is increased by 30% (the stacking amount per unit area of the traditional equipment is 400 kg, and the stacking amount per unit area of this equipment can reach 520 kg), and the labor efficiency is increased by 50% (only 1 labor is required for 20 tons of fermented materials, while 2 - 3 labors are required for 20 tons of fermented materials in the traditional case).

[0044] The overall equipment line can realize the automation and mechanization of the off-ground fermentation of Pu-erh tea. The 2-layer fermentation bed has a single-batch fermentation capacity of 6.7 tons of raw tea, and the quality meets the basic quality requirements of Pu-erh tea, that is, the dry tea is dark red and brown, the tea soup is red and thick, the taste is mellow, and the uniformity is good, with few lumps and no peculiar smells such as sour, smelly, rotten, etc. The fully automated modular operation is convenient for operation at the feeding and discharging ports, and the internal material transmission and connection are smooth without jamming points.

[0045] Example 4. This example discloses a shelf-type off-ground automatic continuous fermentation process for Pu-erh tea, which uses the shelf-type off-ground automatic continuous fermentation equipment described in the above example for fermentation, including the following steps: S1. Loading: The tea leaves are evenly spread onto the fermentation bed 2 through the circulating conveyor line 5, with a stacking height of ≥1 m, a consistent loading thickness, and uniform distribution. During the loading process, rehydration is carried out simultaneously, and the moisture requirement is 30%-35%. Specifically, the material is re-distributed by the cloth platform and then enters the upper (first layer) bed body. The upper bed body is slowly conveyed from right to left by the chain plate line and undergoes a stacking process. The stacking thickness is 1 m - 1.5 m, and the stacking width is 2 m - 3 m. After the stacking height of the upper bed body reaches the set height and the entire layer is covered, the tea leaves are conveyed to the left end and fall into the second bed body. The tea leaves are slowly conveyed from left to right and undergo a stacking process. After the second bed body is full, this process is repeated until the fermentation bed 2 is completely covered with materials and the loading stops.

[0046] S2. Fermentation: Static fermentation is carried out, and the pile is turned over once every 5 - 7 days. Specifically, when the temperature of the central layer of the tea leaves in each bed body exceeds 50 degrees Celsius (this temperature can be changed and set), the temperature sensor alarms, and at the same time, the pile turning action is started.

[0047] S3. Drying and Ventilation: After the tea leaves reach the fermentation maturity, through multiple pile turnings, the tea pile is disassembled and conveyed by rolling, so that the moisture of the material naturally drops to 15%, and the fermentation ends. In the above step S2, the fermentation is divided into three major periods: the early stage, the middle stage, and the late stage. Among them, the early stage and the late stage each include two small periods, and the middle stage includes three small periods, for a total of seven small periods. A pile turning and rehydration are carried out at the end of each small period. The rehydration amount controls the water addition speed through a flow meter to achieve moisture control. In the two small periods of the early stage, each small period ferments for 5 days. In the three small periods of the middle stage, each small period ferments for 7 days. In the two small periods of the late stage, each small period ferments for 5 days.

[0048] In the above step S2, pectinase, cellulase, and mold are added in the early stage, bacillus and protease preparation are added in the middle stage, and yeast is added in the late stage. Through the adjustment of the fermentation process, adding enzyme preparations and bacterial solutions can effectively increase the amino acid content of Pu-erh ripe tea, improving the sweetness, freshness, and mellow thickness. The enzyme preparations and bacterial solutions are added after being dissolved in water. After rehydration spraying by the rehydration spraying device 6 and pile turning, fermentation is carried out. That is, according to technical requirements, composite preparations such as enzyme preparations and bacterial solutions can be added to the tea raw materials in the rehydration link, so that the enzyme preparations and bacterial solutions can be evenly mixed and the aqueous solution can be evenly added to the tea leaves, or they can be automatically added according to the order requirements according to the fermentation cycle of the tea leaves and the automatic pile turning in the tea fermentation tank can be completed.

[0049] In the step S2, cellulase, pectinase and mold are added in the first small cycle in the early stage, bacillus subtilis and protease are added in the first small cycle in the middle stage, and yeast is added in the first small cycle in the later stage. The addition amount of the enzyme preparation is 2 g / kg according to the tea quality ratio, and the addition amount of the bacterial strain is calculated based on the bacterial liquid density at 107 cfu / ml or 10 ml / kg.

[0050] Principle of the bacterial strain formula: Mold is added in the initial stage of fermentation, and bacillus subtilis and yeast are added in the middle and later stages. By adding mold in the early stage of the fermentation process, tea pigments such as tea brown pigment and theaflavin can be rapidly accumulated. The addition of the enzyme preparations of pectinase and cellulase in the early stage can accelerate the start of the Pu-erh tea fermentation, making the tea pile not easy to agglomerate; the mellow taste in the later stage depends on bacillus subtilis and yeast. The freshness of the tea soup taste and the amino acid content are significantly improved, and the problem of the accumulated temperature in the core of the pile caused by agglomeration is solved. The highest pile temperature of the Pu-erh tea fermented by this method is 5°C - 10°C lower than that of the traditional method under the same pile height.

[0051] Example 5: In this example, the Pu-erh tea prepared by using commercially available or ordinary Pu-erh tea, the process of the present invention (especially referring to the addition process of the enzyme preparation and the bacterial liquid), and the equipment and process of the present invention are respectively set as the control group, the new process group and the new process equipment group for detection and comparison. And each group is detected at different fermentation time periods (D10, D30, D40 respectively correspond to 10 days, 30 days, and 40 days of fermentation), and is detected and compared with the Pu-erh tea raw material. The comparison results of the tea parameters of each group are shown in Figures 7-8 。

[0052] Among them, during the process from the raw material to D40, the moisture content slightly increases. The content in the raw material is 7.91%, and the content after 40 days of fermentation is 7.74% - 8.59%. During the fermentation process, tea polyphenols and total flavonoids undergo enzymatic oxidation reactions and continuous polymerization and conversion into macromolecular crude pigments and other substances, showing a downward trend during the fermentation process. The content of tea polyphenols in the raw material is 25.77%. It decreases by 32.1% - 35.2% at D10, 53.4% - 60.0% at D30, and 74.0% at D40. Among them, except for the D40 group, the new process group is higher than the non-control bacteria group in other groups. During the period from 30 days to 40 days of fermentation, the decline rate of polyphenols in the new process group is higher than that of the control group. The content of total flavonoids in the raw material is 1.00%. After fermentation, the content decreases. After 10 days, 30 days, and 40 days of fermentation, the new process group is lower than the ground control group. Free amino acids degrade during the fermentation process and also participate in the reaction with polyphenols to generate polymers with different molecular weights, showing a downward trend, and the new process group is higher than the control group.

[0053] The content of theabrownine shows an upward trend during the process from raw materials to the 40th day of fermentation, with the highest increase rate reaching 192.9%. During the fermentation process, the content of theabrownine in the control group is lower than that in the new process group. Considering the differences in the content of tea polyphenols, catechins, etc., the transformation of polyphenol compounds in the control group is slower than that in the new process group during the fermentation process.

[0054] It can be seen from the detection data that the Pu-erh tea fermented by the new process has a significant increase in several key components of Pu-erh ripe tea, such as amino acids and tea pigments, compared with the Pu-erh tea fermented by traditional non-additive methods. Amino acids and theabrownine are both beneficial elements for physical health, and can effectively improve the freshness, mellowness and thickness of the tea taste.

[0055] In addition, in the description of the invention, unless otherwise specified, if the terms "multiple", "multiple roots", "multiple groups" are used, their meanings are two or more, and the meanings of "several", "several roots", "several groups" are one or more. In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that if the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc. are used to indicate the orientation or positional relationship, it is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings. This is only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, so it cannot be understood as a limitation of the present invention. In addition, if the terms "first", "second", "third" are used only for descriptive purposes, they cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance.

[0056] The specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Within the scope of knowledge possessed by those of ordinary skill in the art, various changes can be made without departing from the purpose of the present invention.

Claims

1. An automated continuous fermentation device for shelf-type Pu-erh tea off the ground, characterized in that Including: A fermentation rack, which is provided with multiple fermentation beds. The tea leaves to be fermented are stacked on the fermentation beds for fermentation. The fermentation bed includes a conveyor bed body, and the tea leaves on adjacent two-layer fermentation beds are circulated by the rotation of the conveyor bed body; A tea-unblocking component, which is arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor bed body and is used to unblock the tea pile; A circulating conveyor line, which is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed out by the fermentation rack, then rehydrate them and convey them back to the fermentation rack for cyclic fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; A controller, which is respectively communicatively connected or electrically connected to the fermentation bed, the tea-unblocking component and the circulating conveyor line to control their starting and stopping operations.

2. The shelf-type automatic continuous Pu-erh tea fermentation equipment off the ground according to claim 1, characterized in that: The fermentation bed further includes a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor and a height sensor. A plurality of temperature sensors and humidity sensors are evenly arranged in an array along the length direction of the fermentation bed, and the height sensor is arranged at the feed end of the fermentation bed. The temperature sensor, the humidity sensor and the height sensor are respectively communicatively connected to the controller.

3. The shelf-type automatic continuous Pu-erh tea fermentation equipment off the ground according to claim 1, characterized in that: All the fermentation beds of the fermentation rack are evenly arranged from top to bottom, and for adjacent two-layer fermentation beds, the discharge end of one is located above the feed end of the other; the conveyor bed body adopts a conveyor belt structure and is provided with dense air holes thereon.

4. The shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation equipment for Pu-erh tea off the ground according to claim 3, characterized in that: The circulating conveyor line is used to receive the tea leaves conveyed out from the lowermost fermentation bed of the fermentation rack, then rehydrate them and convey them back to the uppermost fermentation bed of the fermentation rack for cyclic fermentation or output and pack the fermented tea leaves; the circulating conveyor line adopts a conveyor belt structure and the circulating conveyor line includes a rehydration spraying device.

5. The shelf-type automatic continuous Pu-erh tea fermentation equipment off the ground according to claim 4, characterized in that: The circulating conveyor line further includes a first transverse conveyor belt, a first longitudinal conveyor belt, a second transverse conveyor belt, a third transverse conveyor belt and a second longitudinal conveyor belt. The first transverse conveyor belt, the first longitudinal conveyor belt, the second transverse conveyor belt, the third transverse conveyor belt and the second longitudinal conveyor belt are sequentially connected end to end to form a C-shaped conveying structure to convey the tea leaves conveyed out from the lowermost fermentation bed of the fermentation rack back to the uppermost fermentation bed of the fermentation rack for cyclic fermentation.

6. The shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation equipment for Pu-erh tea off the ground according to claim 5, characterized in that: A three-way distributor is arranged at the discharge end of the second transverse conveyor belt, and the tea leaves coming out of the second transverse conveyor belt are guided to the third transverse conveyor belt or out of the circulating conveyor line through the three-way distributor; the rehydration spraying device is arranged at the second transverse conveyor belt, and the rehydration spraying device includes a plurality of atomizing nozzles uniformly arranged above the second transverse conveyor belt and a conveying pipe network. All the atomizing nozzles are communicated through the conveying pipe network, and a flow meter is arranged on the conveying pipe network.

7. An automated continuous fermentation process for shelf-type Pu-erh tea off the ground, characterized in that, Using the shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation equipment for Pu-erh tea off the ground according to any one of claims 1-6 for fermentation, including the following steps: S1. Feeding: The tea leaves are evenly spread on the fermentation bed through the circulating conveyor line, the stacking height is ≥1 m, the feeding thickness is consistent and evenly distributed, and rehydration is carried out synchronously during the feeding process, and the moisture requirement is 30%-35%; S2. Fermentation: Standing fermentation, turning the pile once every 5-7 days; S3. Drying and ventilation: After the tea leaves reach the fermentation ripeness, through multiple pile-turning, unblocking the tea pile and rolling transportation, the moisture of the material naturally drops to 15%, and the fermentation ends.

8. The shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation process of Pu-erh tea off the ground according to claim 7, characterized in that: In the step S2, the fermentation is divided into three major cycles: the early stage, the middle stage, and the late stage. The early stage and the late stage each include two small cycles, and the middle stage includes three small cycles, for a total of seven small cycles. At the end of each small cycle, turning and rehydration are carried out. For the two small cycles in the early stage, each small cycle ferments for 5 days. For the three small cycles in the middle stage, each small cycle ferments for 7 days. For the two small cycles in the late stage, each small cycle ferments for 5 days.

9. The shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation process of Pu-erh tea above the ground according to claim 8, characterized in that: In the step S2, pectinase, cellulase, and mold are added in the early stage, bacillus and protease preparation are added in the middle stage, and yeast is added in the late stage. The enzyme preparation and the bacterial liquid are added after being dissolved in water, and after uniform rehydration through the rehydration spraying device and turning, fermentation is carried out.

10. The shelf-type automatic continuous fermentation process of Pu-erh tea off the ground according to claim 9, characterized in that: In the step S2, cellulase, pectinase and molds are added in the first small cycle in the early stage, bacillus and protease are added in the first small cycle in the middle stage, and yeast is added in the first small cycle in the later stage. The addition amount of the enzyme preparation is 2 g / kg according to the tea quality ratio, and the addition amount of the bacterial strain is calculated based on the bacterial liquid density at 10 7 cfu / ml or 10 ml / kg.

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