Whiskey manufacturing methods

Abstract

Undesirable volatile components that become undesirable after distillation are removed from the mash before distillation to create a lighter, cleaner, and more desirable whiskey. [Solution] A method for producing whiskey comprising a saccharification step of saccharifying malt to obtain wort, a fermentation step of ethanol fermentation of the wort, and a distillation step of distilling the fermented mash, wherein, before distilling the mash, the wort is centrifuged at a centrifugal acceleration of 100G or more and 1000G or less to separate particles with a particle size of 10 μm or more from the solid side and particles with a particle size smaller than 10 μm from the liquid side, and the separated liquid side is distilled.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for producing whiskey, and particularly to a method for producing whiskey with a light and unobtrusive flavor.

Background Art

[0002] Whiskey is produced by saccharifying grains such as barley and corn, fermenting the resulting mash to produce ethanol, and then distilling the mash to concentrate volatile components such as ethanol. In addition to ethanol, the fermented mash contains many components derived from grains and components produced during the fermentation process. During distillation, it is common to directly apply the mash to a distiller to concentrate the volatile components. However, among the components contained in the mash, there are not only components that are favorable for drinking but also unfavorable components. Therefore, there is a problem that not only the favorable volatile components are concentrated but also the unfavorable volatile components are concentrated.

[0003] As a technique for solving such problems, a method of removing unnecessary components by combining multiple distillation conditions such as vacuum distillation has been reported (Patent Document 1). However, this method not only complicates the manufacturing process and increases the burden on workers, but also requires a special distillation apparatus for production, so there is a problem that it is too costly and time-consuming to actually manufacture.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] This invention was made in view of these points, and the present invention makes it possible to produce a more refined and desirable whiskey without off-flavors by removing unwanted components before distillation. As a result of diligent research, the inventors of this invention succeeded in removing unwanted components that become undesirable volatile components after distillation from the components of the mash before distillation, and thus completed the present invention. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In other words, the invention of claim 1 relates to a method for producing whiskey, comprising a saccharification step of saccharifying malt to obtain wort, a fermentation step of ethanol fermentation of the wort, and a distillation step of distilling the fermented mash, characterized in that, before distilling the mash, the wort is centrifuged at a centrifugal acceleration of 100G or more and 1000G or less to separate particles with a particle diameter of 10 μm or more from the solid side and particles with a particle diameter smaller than 10 μm from the liquid side, and the separated liquid side is distilled. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] In other words, according to the invention of claim 1, a method for producing whiskey comprising a saccharification step of saccharifying malt to obtain wort, a fermentation step of ethanol fermentation of the wort, and a distillation step of distilling the fermented mash, wherein, before distilling the mash, the wort is centrifuged at a centrifugal acceleration of 100G or more and 1000G or less to separate particles with a particle size of 10 μm or more into the solid side and particles with a particle size smaller than 10 μm into the liquid side, and the separated liquid side is distilled, thereby having the following effect. That is, by separating the components contained in the whiskey mash according to particle size, it is possible to retain desirable components and remove undesirable components. As a result, by removing particles with a particle size of 10 μm or more and distilling, it is possible to make the resulting whiskey raw spirit light and free of off-flavors. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1]This is a schematic process diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] This is a particle size distribution diagram of whiskey mash. [Figure 3] This is a particle size distribution diagram of whiskey mash after centrifugal separation with a centrifugal acceleration of 1000G. [Figure 4] This is a particle size distribution diagram of whiskey mash after centrifugal separation with a centrifugal acceleration of 100G. [Figure 5] This is a particle size distribution diagram of whiskey mash after centrifugal separation with a centrifugal acceleration of 50G. [Figure 6] This is a particle size distribution diagram of whiskey mash after centrifugal separation with a centrifugal acceleration of 10G. [Figure 7] This is a particle size distribution diagram of the whiskey mash after solid-liquid separation in Example 2. [Figure 8] This is a schematic cross-sectional view of the stirring blade of the manufacturing apparatus in Example 3. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. Figure 1 is a schematic process diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and the whiskey as defined in claim 1 is characterized by separating unwanted components from the whiskey mash before distillation, and then distilling the whiskey mash from which the unwanted components have been removed to produce the whiskey.

[0010] Whiskey mash is made by adding hot water to germinated barley to saccharify it, and then adding yeast to ferment it. As a raw material for whiskey, other grains may be added to germinated barley. In Figure 1, it is simply labeled "malt," but the whiskey of the present invention can also be produced using grains other than barley (hereinafter, including cases where other grains are used, it will simply be referred to as "malt"). If necessary, enzymes may be added to promote saccharification.

[0011] Malt contains starch and saccharifying enzymes. When malt is crushed and placed in a saccharification tank, and hot water is added and stirred, the starch is broken down into sugar by the saccharifying enzymes (saccharification process in Figure 1). The crushed malt should ideally have a ratio of approximately 2:7:1 for particles with a diameter of 1.4 mm or more (so-called "husk"), particles with a diameter of 1.4 mm to 0.2 mm (so-called "grits"), and particles with a diameter of 0.2 mm or less (so-called "flour").

[0012] When crushed malt is mixed with hot water and stirred, the starch in the malt is broken down into sugar by the enzymes in the malt. The temperature of the hot water to be added should preferably be between 60°C and 85°C. The amount of hot water to be added should be about 3 to 5 times the amount of malt, and it is preferable to add it in 2 to 3 separate additions. After adding the divided hot water in the saccharification tank, stir slowly so that the malt in the tank is evenly dispersed. The starch in the malt is broken down by the action of enzymes, and the large crushed malt particles become smaller. After stirring for about 30 minutes, the mixture is separated into wort and spent grain. The larger husk portion of the crushed malt, which is not broken down by enzymes, acts as a filter, separating the wort that passes through the filter from the spent grain that does not. The same process is repeated with the remaining hot water to create wort. The prepared wort may be sterilized before proceeding to the next fermentation process.

[0013] Yeast is added to the prepared wort and fermented into ethanol. The yeast can be commercially available whiskey yeast, yeast from other alcoholic beverages, or even natural yeast from the whiskey distillery.

[0014] When ethanol fermentation is complete, in the conventional method, the fermentation mash is directly distilled as it is, but in the present invention, the fermentation mash is separated into solid and liquid components and then distilled. Although large particles of malt are removed in the wort preparation process described above, those that could not be completely removed and particles generated during fermentation are separated from the liquid component. This solid-liquid separation may be by filter filtration or by centrifugation, but it is necessary to use a method that can generally separate particles with a particle size of 200 μm or more as solid components. The separated liquid obtained by separation is distilled to concentrate the volatile components, which becomes the raw spirit of the whisky of the present invention. The produced raw whisky is barreled and stored for a desired period in the same manner as the conventional method, and delicious whisky is completed.

Example

[0015] (Example 1) 100 kg of crushed malt was put into a tank, 10,000 L of hot water at 65 °C was added and stirred, and after 30 minutes, about 9,000 L of wort was recovered through the mesh plate at the bottom of the tank. After cooling the wort, dry yeast for whisky was added and fermented for 48 hours to produce about 9,000 L of whisky mash. The ethanol concentration in the whisky mash produced by fermentation was 6.8% v / v.

[0016] Figure 2 shows the results of measuring the particle size distribution of this whisky mash. There are many large particles of 1500 μm or more and small particles of around 10 μm, and there are also particle peaks around 900 μm and around 200 μm, and it was confirmed that there are a total of four groups of particle sizes. Since the particle size distribution meter used for the measurement cannot measure particles of 2000 μm or more, it is expected that there are also particles of 2000 μm or more.

[0017] Here, the separation of particles in the whisky mash by centrifugal acceleration will be explained together with experimental examples. (a) Experimental method The whisky mash was dispensed into a tube for a centrifuge and centrifuged. Immediately after centrifugation, it was separated into solid and liquid components by decantation, and the weights of each were measured. (b) Experimental equipment Centrifugation: KUBOTA table centrifuge, swing rotor ST-504M, centrifuge tube (50 ml) (c) Centrifugation conditions The liquid in the centrifuge tube and the rotational speed were adjusted so that the centripetal acceleration became 1000G, 100G, 50G, and 10G, and centrifugation was performed. The centrifugation time was set to 5 minutes. The particle size distribution of the centrifuged liquid was measured. (d) Experimental results The experimental results at centripetal accelerations of 1000G, 100G, 50G, and 10G are as shown in Figures 3 to 6.

[0018] (e) Discussion Comparing the particle size distribution measurement results in Figure 2 and Figures 3 to 6, particles with a particle diameter of 1500 μm or more and particles around 900 μm in diameter have been separated and disappeared by centrifugation, but for particles around 200 μm in diameter, they are divided into those removed and those not removed by the centripetal acceleration. At a centripetal acceleration of 100G or more, only particles around 10 μm in diameter can be separated, while at a centripetal acceleration of 50G, in addition to particles around 10 μm in diameter, particles around 200 μm in diameter are generally separated but still remain slightly, and it was found that many particles around 200 μm in diameter remain at a centripetal acceleration of 10G.

[0019] The taste of the distillate of whisky mash and the distillate of the centrifuged liquid at centripetal accelerations of 1000G, 100G, 50G, and 10G was confirmed. Specifically, Table 2 shows the results of having 10 subjects evaluate the taste, aroma, and overall of the distilled distillate. Regarding the evaluation, it was on a 5-point scale from 1 to 5 by 10 subjects, with 5 being good, 3 being average, and 1 being poor. The numerical values in the table are the average values of the 5-point evaluations by 10 subjects.

[0020]

Table 1

[0021] Table 1 shows that the distillate of whiskey mash that was not centrifuged had off-flavors and received a low rating, while the distillate of centrifugation using a centrifugal acceleration of 1000G was clean and received high ratings for taste and aroma overall. As shown in the experimental results above, the 1000G centrifugation removed particles around 200μm, leaving only particles around 10μm. It is thought that the presence or absence of particles larger than 200μm affected the results of the sensory evaluation.

[0022] Based on the experimental results, in this example, approximately 9000 L of whiskey mash was centrifuged at a centrifugal acceleration of 1000 G. The resulting 9000 L of centrifugated liquid was distilled to concentrate the volatile components and obtain 1000 L of raw whiskey.

[0023] (Example 2) Example 2 differs from Example 1 in that, instead of using a centrifuge for solid-liquid separation, the separation is performed by compressive filtration. Even with filtration using a filter cloth, particles larger than 200 μm can be removed, similar to Example 1. Figure 7 shows the particle size distribution of the filtrate obtained by solid-liquid separation of whiskey mash using a filter cloth. It can be seen that only particles around 10 μm remain. Even when this filtrate was distilled, it was possible to obtain similarly delicious whiskey.

[0024] (Example 3) Example 3 differs from Example 1 in that, in the saccharification process, the malt crushed in Example 1 is placed in a tank, 65°C hot water is added and stirred, and the malt is saccharified while being stirred with a stirring blade.

[0025] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the agitator B attached to the tank for saccharifying malt (the "container" of the present invention). A rotation axis S is positioned vertically in the center of the tank, and an agitator B is attached to the rotation axis S, with a size of 40% or more of the tank's inner diameter and 40% or more of the tank's overall height. In this embodiment, specifically, an agitator B is attached with a size of 50% or more, with an agitator blade width of 1440 mm for a tank inner diameter of 2400 mm, and a vertical size of 2255 mm for a tank height of 3590 mm. The agitator B of the present invention may be divided into left and right sides around the rotation axis as shown in Figure 8, or it may be divided into upper and lower sections and attached at different angles to the rotation axis. In this embodiment, they are attached intersecting at right angles.

[0026] By rotating the stirring blade B of this embodiment at a low speed, the malt can be made to flow throughout the entire tank, allowing for efficient and smooth circulating flow throughout the tank. In the saccharification process of the wort, the particle size of the crushed malt becomes smaller, but if the mixture is stirred too vigorously at this stage, the particles may break down too much, raising concerns that unwanted components larger than 200 μm may be crushed and become impossible to separate. By stirring slowly at a low speed with the stirring blade B of this embodiment, for example, by stirring slowly as if a craftsman were stirring with a paddle, the particles will not become too small. This makes it possible to more reliably remove unwanted components in the subsequent separation process. Note that stirring may be performed in either the saccharification process or the fermentation process, or both. [Industrial applicability]

[0027] As described above, the whiskey manufacturing method of the present invention makes it possible to produce a more refined, less off-flavored, and desirable whiskey by removing unwanted components before distillation, resulting in a useful product. It is promising as an alternative to conventional whiskey manufacturing methods.

Claims

[Claim 1] A method for producing whiskey comprising a saccharification step of saccharifying malt to obtain wort, a fermentation step of fermenting the wort into ethanol, and a distillation step of distilling the fermented mash, A method for producing whiskey, characterized in that, before distilling the mash, the wort is centrifuged at a centrifugal acceleration of 100 G or more and 1000 G or less to separate particles with a particle size of 10 μm or more from the solid side and particles with a particle size smaller than 10 μm from the liquid side through solid-liquid separation, and the separated liquid side is then distilled.

Images