Method of producing beer having a tailored flavour profile

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10550358-B2
Application number	US-201515508799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2015
Priority date	Sep 5, 2014
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

A method of producing beer having a tailored flavour profile is provided comprising the successive steps of: (a) fermenting wort containing fermentable sugars with yeast to produce beer containing 1-10 vol. % ethanol and flavour substances diacetyl; acetaldehyde; dimethyl sulfide; ethyl acetate; isoamyl acetate; ethyl valerate; ethyl hexanoate; iso-amyl alcohol and 2-methylbutan-1-ol; (b) contacting the fermenting wort or beer with porous adsorbent particles, selectively adsorbing the beer flavour esters ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl valerate and isoamyl acetate; (c) separating the adsorbent particles; (d) desorbing a portion of the beer flavour esters from the adsorbent particles; and (e) adding a fraction of the desorbed beer flavour esters to the flavour adjusted beer or to another beer, wherein the amount of beer flavour esters added is 5-95 wt. % of the amount of beer flavour esters removed by the adsorbent particles.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of producing beer, comprising:
(a) fermenting a wort containing fermentable sugars with an active yeast to produce a beer containing 1-10 vol. % ethanol and further containing the beer flavour substances diacetyl; acetaldehyde; dimethyl sulfide; ethyl acetate; isoamyl acetate; ethyl valerate; ethyl hexanoate; iso-amyl alcohol and 2-methylbutan-1-ol; and
(b) altering the flavour profile of the beer by selectively reducing the concentration level of one or more beer flavour esters selected from ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl valerate and isoamyl acetate, by subjecting the fermenting wort or the beer to the successive steps of:
(i) contacting the fermenting wort or the beer with porous adsorbent particles to selectively adsorb the beer flavour esters;
(ii) separating the adsorbent particles containing the adsorbed beer flavour esters from the beer to produce a flavour adjusted beer containing 1-10 vol. % ethanol;
(iii) desorbing at least a portion of the beer flavour esters from the separated adsorbent particles; and
(iv) adding at least a fraction of the desorbed beer flavour esters to the flavour adjusted beer, wherein the amount of beer flavour esters that is added to the flavour adjusted beer represents 5-95 wt. % of the amount of beer flavour esters that was removed from the beer by the adsorbent particles;

wherein the adsorbent particles' affinity ratio θ i for at least one of the beer flavour esters exceeds 5;
the affinity ratio θ i for beer flavour ester i being defined by the following equation; θ i =K i /K ethanol ;
wherein:
(i) K i represents the adsorbent particles' affinity constant for beer flavour ester i;
(ii) K ethanol represents the adsorbent particles' affinity constant for ethanol.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein yeast is separated from the beer before the beer is contacted with the adsorbent particles.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein yeast and the adsorbent particles are simultaneously separated from the beer to produce the flavour adjusted beer.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least a fraction of the desorbed beer flavour esters is added back to the flavour adjusted beer.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorbent particles are re-used in the method after desorption step (d), the desorption step comprising:
(i) contacting the separated adsorbent particles containing the adsorbed beer flavour esters with a liquid solvent and desorbing the adsorbed beer flavour esters into the liquid solvent; and
(ii) separating the desorbed adsorbent particles from the liquid solvent containing the desorbed beer flavour esters.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorbent particles are made from a polymer.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the polymer is a cross-linked polystyrene.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the polymer is a styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorbent particles have specific surface area of at least 50 m 2 /g.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least 80 wt. % of the adsorbent particles has a diameter in the range of 5-5,000 μm.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio between the concentration [ethyl acetate]/[isoamyl acetate] in the flavour adjusted beer differs by at least a factor 2 from the same concentration ratio in the adsorbent particles, wherein both [ethyl acetate] and [isoamyl acetate] refer to the concentration in mg/g.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorbent particles' affinity ratio θ i for at least one of the beer flavour esters exceeds 10.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the adsorbent particles' affinity ratio θ i for at least one of the beer flavour esters exceeds 20.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorbent particles have an affinity constant K ads for at least one of the beer flavour esters of at least 0.5 L/g adsorbent.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the adsorbent particles have an affinity constant K ads for at least one of the beer flavour esters of at least 0.8 L/g adsorbent.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the adsorbent particles have an affinity constant K ads for at least one of the beer flavour esters of at least 1.8 L/g adsorbent.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the adsorbent particles have an affinity constant K ads for at least one of the beer flavour esters of at least 3.5 L/g adsorbent.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desorbed beer flavour esters are added to the flavour adjusted beer yields in an amount such that the weight ratio of at least one of the following combinations of beer flavour esters is adjusted by at least a factor 2.0:
(i) ethyl acetate/isoamyl acetate;
(ii) ethyl hexanoate/ethyl acetate;
(iii) ethyl valerate/ethyl acetate;
(iv) ethyl hexanoate/isoamyl acetate;
(v) ethyl valerate/isoamyl acetate.

19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio between the concentrations [ethyl acetate]/[isoamyl acetate] in the flavour adjusted beer differs by at least a factor 2 from the same concentration ratio in the adsorbent particles after separation, wherein both [ethyl acetate] and [isoamyl acetate] refer to the concentration in mg/g.

Assignees

• Heineken Supply Chain Bv

Inventors

• Ottens Marcel
• Saffarionpour Shima
• Noordman Tom Reinoud

Classifications

• C12H1/0432

  with the aid of ion-exchange material · CPC title

• C12C5/026

  Beer flavouring preparations · CPC title

• C12H1/063

  Separation by filtration · CPC title

• C12C11/11 Primary

  Post fermentation treatments, e.g. carbonation, or concentration (methods for reducing the alcohol content after fermentation C12H3/00; methods for increasing the alcohol content after fermentation C12H6/00) · CPC title

• C12H1/0424

  with the aid of a polymer · CPC title