JPS5940438B2 - Beer clarification method - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to improvements in beer clarification methods.

Traditionally, beer has been made from barley, which is processed by saccharification and
After fermentation, beer is manufactured through a process of low-temperature storage and filtration, but since this beer often becomes cloudy, especially when refrigerated, treatments are often applied to prevent it from becoming cloudy. .

It is also known that this turbidity is caused by high molecular weight proteins dissolved in beer, and many methods have been proposed to clarify beer by removing this. If all methods are excluded, the foaming, flavor, etc. of the beer will be impaired, so there are only a few clarification methods that can be put to practical use.

However, even with these clarification methods that are said to be relatively good,
However, there are some implementation difficulties.

For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 39-29817 describes a method for selectively adsorbing and removing only undesirable proteins in beer using a specific acid-treated silica gel. It is not easy to obtain silica gel of constant quality, and since this silica gel is a powder, it requires a process of adding it to beer and then stirring it, and furthermore, this process requires a lot of operations. The quality of product beer can vary depending on the method.

As another example, British Patent No. 1306446 describes a method for stabilizing beer by adding an alkaline silica sol to unclarified beer and removing aggregates. When added to beer, the pH of the beer increases, and the cations in the sol are mixed into the beer, which tends to impair the quality of the beer, and because it cannot be added in large quantities, the effect is not very sufficient.

As yet another example, British Patent No. 1,379,917 describes a method for clarifying beer by adding low molecular weight polysilicic acid to unclarified beer and removing aggregates; Since acid solutions have poor stability, the clarification effect is also variable and difficult to implement.

As yet another example, a method of clarifying beer by adding papain to unclarified beer and removing aggregates is known, but papain remains in the product beer and impairs the flavor of the beer. However, there are still disadvantages in that it is easy to use, and it also tends to cause secondary cages.

As a result of detailed research, the present inventors found that a silica sol obtained by contacting an alkaline silica sol stabilized by the addition of alkali with a cation exchanger, or a silica sol obtained by contacting this with an anion exchanger. The silica sol is essentially an acidic silica sol made up of dissociated ions of silicic acid, and is not only extremely stable, but when it is added to unclarified beer, precipitation of aggregates and its sedimentation immediately begin to occur. It was found that the filtration properties were good, and the foaming, flavor, etc. of the resulting product beer were not impaired.

The purpose of the present invention is to obtain a product beer that does not cause cold turbidity and has good flavor and foaming. The object of the present invention is to provide a method for clarifying.

The beer clarification method of the present invention includes eight steps in the beer manufacturing method.
The method is characterized in that a stable acidic silica sol containing substantially no impurity ions is added to the liquid after the main fermentation, and the resulting aggregates are removed.

The beer manufacturing method to which the method of the present invention is applied is a general method in which barley is used as the main raw material and is saccharified and fermented. It is produced through two steps: separation, and the product "beer" is produced through the two steps of filtration, bottling, and sterilization.

The above fermentation is also called main fermentation, and is usually at 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
The low-temperature storage is also called post-fermentation and is usually carried out at around 0°C for about 6 to 17 weeks.

The liquid after the main fermentation in the present invention is heated to 8 to 10°C at the above 5 to 10°C.
The liquid is obtained after fermentation is carried out for about 12 hours, but depending on the case, the liquid may be stored at a low temperature after the main fermentation, or may be stored at a low temperature but before fermentation.

Aqueous silica sol is a liquid in which colloidal silica particles made of a polymer of silicic acid are dispersed in an aqueous medium. Generally, various types of silica sol with different temperature properties are obtained depending on the backing method. There is.

The silica sol described in the above-cited British Patent No. 1,379,917 is a dispersion of fine silica particles having a particle size of several microns or less with a low degree of polymerization of silicic acid, and has extremely poor stability and is easily polymerized. It has the property of easily turning into a gel as it progresses, and cannot be expected to be practical as a sol with consistent performance.

However, since this sol is made up of fine particles, it has a high degree of activity (
Although it is useful as a sol with improved stability by adding a stabilizer to this sol, the added stabilizer tends to impure the product beer.

Further, the sol described in the above-cited British Patent No. 1306446 is usually prepared by adding a stabilizing amount of alkali to a low polymerization degree silicic acid solution dealkalized by contacting a hydraulic lath with a cation exchanger. It is stabilized by adding sodium hydroxide, etc. and causing particle growth, and the particle size of colloidal silica usually varies by about 10 to 100 mμ, and the pH of the liquid is about 9 to 11. It is something.

Although this sol is stable, it has strong alkalinity, so when it is added to unclarified beer for clarification, the pH of the beer becomes slightly higher.

The silica sol used in the present invention does not contain impurity ions and is substantially acidic due to dissociated ions of silicic acid,
Moreover, it is highly stable.

Such a sol is usually easily obtained by bringing the alkaline, alkali-stabilized silica sol into contact with a cation exchanger to extremely remove alkaline cations.

In some cases, by further contacting with an anion exchanger, it can be obtained with impure anions other than silicate ions removed to an extreme extent.

The thus obtained sol is an aqueous dispersion of colloidal silica with a particle size that hardly changes during the above-mentioned cation exchange treatment or the treatment process of this and anion exchange, and is usually about 10 to 100 mμ. Although it exhibits acidity due to hydrogen ions generated by dissociation of silicic acid, it is extremely stable and can be stored at a constant quality for a long period of time.

The PR of the liquid is usually about 2 to 6.

Further, the 5i02 content in the sol is usually 50% or less, preferably about 5 to 30%.

When this sol is added to unclarified beer, that is, the liquid after the fermentation, precipitation of aggregates immediately begins to occur, and the aggregates have good sedimentation properties and are easily filtered out.

The method for separating the aggregates is not limited to the above-mentioned filtration, but
General separation methods such as centrifugation and supernatant methods can also be applied, and by subsequently collecting the liquid, the resulting aggregates can be removed.

According to the method of the present invention, the amount of silica sol to be added to the liquid after main fermentation is usually 0.01 to 0.0 in SiO□ concentration in the liquid.
The amount may be 5%, preferably 0.05-0.25%.

In addition, after adding 7JO of silica sol to the liquid after main fermentation,
Special treatment such as stirring is not necessarily required, and it is sufficient as long as the conditions are such that the added silica sol is uniformly dispersed in the liquid.

Furthermore, the addition of silica sol according to the method of the present invention can be carried out not only to the liquid immediately after the completion of the main fermentation, but also to the liquid during low-temperature storage or after the completion of the fermentation, as the case may be. Since aggregates can be removed by the filtration step of the beer production method, there is no need to provide a special filtration step just for removing aggregates.

The product beer clarified by the method of the present invention does not become cloudy even when kept at a cold temperature, has no pH fluctuation, and is of good quality with no change in flavor, foaming, etc.

The method of the present invention is simple, efficient, and highly useful.

Examples and comparative examples will be described below, but the technical scope of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Examples 1 to 2 A stable aqueous silica sol with a 5i02 content of 20% and a pH of 2.9 was added to the liquid after main fermentation in a conventional manner in an amount such that the 5i02 concentration in the liquid was the value listed in Table 1. After standing at 0° C. for 7 days, the volume of the washed layer was measured, and the results shown in Table 1 were obtained.

Subsequently, the supernatant was filtered using a t-light filter medium, and the precipitate was removed by filtration, and the turbidity, total nitrogen content, ammonium sulfate turbidity, and pH of this liquid were measured. The results shown in Table 1 were obtained.

Furthermore, after adding carbon dioxide gas to each group, this liquid was bottled, and the forced cold turbidity was measured, and the results shown in Table 1 were obtained.

Comparative Examples 1 to 3 Tests were conducted in the same manner as in Example 1 except that silica sol was not added, and the results of Comparative Example 1 in Table i1 were obtained.

Further, instead of acidic silica sol, 5in230%,
Tests were carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that an alkaline silica sol stabilized with sodium hydroxide having a pH of 9.9 was used, and the results shown in Table 1 were obtained.

Comparing the results of the above examples and comparative examples, it is found that according to the method of the present invention, the amount of sediment before filtration is small, and the filtrate is
It can be seen that the pH does not change, the total nitrogen content is high (and the turbidity is low).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for clarifying beer, which comprises adding a stable acidic aqueous silica sol substantially free of impurity ions to the liquid after main fermentation, and removing the resulting coins.