Pseudo-Boiling Wort Treatment via Inert Gas Sparging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wort boiling in beer brewing remains the most energy-consuming step, despite recent technological advancements, and there is a need for a more economical process that maintains flavor and microbial stability while reducing energy consumption.
Innovation Solution
A pseudo-boiling process where wort is heated to a temperature below its boiling point using an inert gas sparging system, achieving sterilization, enzymatic termination, and volatile compound removal with minimal evaporation, typically less than 4 wt.%, in a kettle equipped with internal or external heating tubes and a gas sparger.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional boiling is used to sterilize and treat wort, then microbial stability and flavor are improved, but energy consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the temperature parameter from conventional boiling (100°C) to sub-boiling temperatures (90-95°C), and introduces inert gas sparging to provide alternative mechanisms for sterilization and volatile removal without requiring full boiling, thus reducing energy consumption while maintaining microbial stability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an inert gas (nitrogen or carbon dioxide) as an intermediary substance that facilitates volatile compound removal and enhances mass transfer during heating, allowing effective wort treatment without requiring the wort itself to reach boiling temperature
2Reliability
If conventional boiling is used to remove volatile compounds, then flavor stability is improved, but evaporation loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses inert gas bubbles as an intermediary to strip volatile compounds from the wort through mass transfer across the gas-liquid interface, replacing the need for water evaporation and thereby removing volatiles without significant evaporation loss
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/thermal process of water evaporation with a gas-sparging-based mass transfer process, where inert gas bubbles carry away volatile compounds through dissolution and desorption, achieving volatile removal without the energy-intensive evaporation of water
3Reliability
If inert gas sparging is added to conventional boiling, then volatile removal is enhanced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the gas sparging system to serve multiple functions: providing inert gas sparging for volatile removal, creating turbulence for enhanced mass transfer, and assisting with trub separation, thereby justifying the added device complexity through multi-functionality
Data Source
AI summary
A method for treating a wort in a kettle provides a kettle with an inlet for feeding a wort into the kettle and with an outlet for flowing the wort out of the kettle. A heating means for bringing the wort contained in the kettle close to or at boiling temperature, as well as for controlling the temperature. A gas sparging system for sparging an inert gas into said wort. Feeding wort from a lautering step into said boiling kettle through the inlet, the wort at a temperature below its boiling temperature. During sparging, heating the wort and maintaining it at a treatment temperature below the boiling temperature of the wort for a duration between 15 and 90 min, and no longer than required to evaporate at most 4 wt. % of water initially in the wort. Transferring the treated wort to a trub separation step through the outlet.