IE53719B1

IE53719B1 - Alcoholic beverages and method of manufacture

Info

Publication number: IE53719B1
Application number: IE2562/82A
Authority: IE
Original assignee: Union Brasseries
Priority date: 1981-10-27
Filing date: 1982-10-26
Publication date: 1989-01-18
Also published as: EP0078226B1; ES8307289A1; MTP916B; IL67072A; AU554067B2; PT75744B; DK473882A; JPS58121788A; FI823645A0; FI823645L; NZ202283A; ES516896A0; AU8980282A; MC1493A1; FR2515204B1; NO163237C; NO163237B; MX7469E; PT75744A; CA1205401A

Abstract

1. A method of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage, starting from a wine and making use of hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration, characterized in that the initial wine is subjected to hyperfiltration or to ultrafiltration suitable for obtaining a permeate other than wine, while retaining drinking quality, said permeate constituting the basis of the desired beverage.

Description

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing alcoholic beverages and to alcoholic beverages obtained by the method.

Proposals have already been made to manufacture beverages 5 of low alcohol content, eg. beer or wine, by hyperfiltration or reverse osmosis. A conventional beer or wine is passed under pressure into a filter cell having a suitable hyperfiltration membrane which is permeable to molecules of small size, such as water and alcohol.

The concentrate, ie. the matter which does not pass through the membrane, is retained and then diluted with water to constitute the desired low-alcohol beverage.

When alcoholic beverages are processed by hyperfiltration or even by ultrafiltration, it is usual for the permeate, ie. the fluid which passes through the membrane, to be disposed of down the drain.

One proposed use for it has been to remove its alcohol and to add it back into the concentrate in order to reduce the level of alcohol therein.

Another proposed use is to use it as an additive for a concentrate of a beverage of the same kind or of a different kind.

Thus, no useful qualities have yet been recognised in the permeate per se.

The present Applicant has discovered that the permeate derived from hyperfiltration or from ultrafiltration of wine, itself constitutes a high quality product of commercial value Further, its quality is substantially independent from the quality of the original wine.

Accordingly, the invention provides a method of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage starting from a wine, which comprises subjecting the initial wine to hyperfiltration or to ultrafiltration suitable for obtaining a permeate other than wine, while retaining drinking quality, said permeate constituting the basis of the desired beverage. δ 3 7 ί 9 The feed-stock beverage may advantageously be a low quality ordinary red wine, i.e. a low quality vin rouge ordinaire.

To obtain the best quality taste properties for the 5 permeate, the concentrate derived from a first hyper- or ultra-filtration is subjected to a second hyper- or ultrafiltration to remove residual wine flavour substances therefrom by extraction by water.

A plurality of successive hyper- or ultra-filtration 10 stages may be applied to the concentrate.

The permeates from successive stages are mixed together and eventually concentrated by subjecting them to a hyper- or ultra-filtration with a membrane which is substantially imprevious to alcohol, the thus recovered water being used as extracting medium for the wine flavour substances of the concentrate.

The above-defined permeate from wine may be used on its own as an alcoholic beverage. However, it is preferable to add flavouring.

The invention thus provides a new channel for marketing agriculturally produced wines, and in particular those low quality heavy red wines of relatively high alcohol content that are often difficult to sell.

The quality of the end product is probably due to the fact that the permeate, in spite of containing none of the dry residue of wine, nonetheless contains components which give it the taste or flavour of wine. These components are present in infinitessimal quantities that are not presently measurable, but their association with added flavouring give rise to an end product with an original and marketable taste.

In this respect, hyper- or ultra-filtration can be considered as a means for ensuring that the beverage as consumed only ,ϊ ‘ I. It contains components that contribute to good quality, while components that reduced the quality of the original wine are eliminated.

A particularly useful application of the invention 5 lies in the fact that the permeate obtained from reverse osmosis of ordinary red wine can be used, after adding suitable flavouring, in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages of the type that have up to now required white wine for their manufacture. As is well known, ordinary red wine is cheaper than white wine.

Flavouring for adding to the permeate may be chosen from fruit extracts, fruit juices, fruit liqueurs or even spirits.

Sugar may be added, if necessary, in addition to the 15 flavouring.

Alcohol may also be added, in particular to obtain a beverage suitable for use as an aperitif. The required degree of alcohol for this purpose may be obtained either by directly adding alcohol, or by Cryo-concentration.

Depending on the additives used, and in particular depending on the chosen flavouring, alcoholic beverages of very different tastes can be obtained.

By adding black currant liqueur to the permeate, a beverage is directly obtained that is comparable in all respects to the cocktail known as Kir, which has hitherto been prepared with white wine.

By adding orange extracts, sugar, and optionally rum, to the permeate, a beverage is obtained which is transparent and comparable to orange wine, in spite of being obtained from ordinary red wine.

The permeate on which beverages in accordance with the invention are based is obtained, as outlined above, by subjecting a wine to hyper- or ultra-filtration. Γ, In order to increase the efficiency of extraction of the various wine flavour substances and in particular the alcoholic efficiency of the method, the concentrate from a first hyper- or ultra-filtration stage is diluted and subjected to a second hyper- or ultra-filtration stage, and the permeates from both stages are mixed together before flavouring is added, if any.

Also for the same purpose, but in order to avoid use of water from outside, the invention provides that the concentrate frcm the first hyper- or ultra-filtration stage is diluted not with fresh water but with . the permeate obtained from an intermediate stage · of hyperfiltration using a membrane which is substantially impervious to alcohol, and the concentrate from the intermediate stage and the permeate of the second hyper- or ultra-filtration stage are mixed together before flavouring is added, if any.

Thus all the wine flavour substances can be extracted from the concentrate, with a minimal loss due to extraction efficiency, by an appropriate choice of the type of maibrane for the various hyper- or ultra-filtration stages and of the association of these stages, the extraction medium of said substances being advantageously provided by dealcoholation of the permeate.

The invention also provides alcoholic beverages manufactured using the above-defined method.

Examples of the invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which : Figure 1 is a process flow diagram for a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a process flow diagram for a second embodiment of the invention; and Figure 3 is a process flow diagram for a third embodiment of the invention.

Generally speaking, in all the examples described below, ordinary red wine is subjected to a hyper- or ultra-filtration treatment performed under the usual operating conditions. Also, alcohol content is expressed throughout in degrees Guy5 lussac, which are equivalent to a volume percentage. Degrees proof (whether US or UK) are not used.

With reference to Figure 1, wine from a tank 2 is pumped by a high pressure pump 1 into the upstream compartment 3 of a hyper- or ultra-filtration cell 4 having a suitable semi10 permeable membrane 5.

A recycling circuit is set up in known manner for recycling a fraction of the concentrate from the upstream compartment 3 of the cell 4 through a pump 6 which feeds the recycled concentrate hack into the wine inlet circuit at a point downstream from the high pressure pump 1. The recycling is for the purpose of keeping the upstream side of the membrane clean.

There is an initial setting up period during which various parameters are adjusted, the water initially contained in the downstream compartment 7 of the cell 4 is disposed of, and the concentrate recycling circuit is established. Thereafter, so long as the supply of feed wine is continuous, steady state operating conditions apply in which a steady flow of permeate is obtained from the outlet 8 of the downstream compartment 7.

The flow rate depends on the surface area of the membrane , on the osmotic pressure, on the temperature and on the pressure delivered hy the high pressure pump 1. The recycling pump 6 also needs adjusting to obtain a steady flow of non-recycled concentrate from an outlet 9.

By suitably adjusting the above-mentioned parameters, a wide range of permeate to concentrate ratios may be obtained, and, in particular, the filter cell equipment may be adjusted to give an unusually high proportion of permeate. For example, the permeate may he as much as 80# of the volume of the wine processed. 3 7 19 It has been observed that the rate at which the membranes used for hyperfiltration become clogged is slow enough for the process to remain profitable.

Example 1 Ordinary red wine with 11’ alcohol content is subjected to reverse osmosis as has been described with reference to Figure 1. The installation is adjusted to give a steady state flow of 70 parts permeate and 30 parts concentrate for 100 parts of initial wine.

The permeate naturally has 11’ alcohol content, so the overall alcohol efficiency of the operation is 70%. The filtering process may be repeated in the manner described below.

Example 2 As shown diagrammatioally in Figure 2, an 11’ red wine V is initially passed through a reverse osmosis cell which is adjusted to give 40 parts concentrate C1 at 11’ and 60 parts permeate PI also at 11° alcohol content.

The concentrate C1 is diluted with 30 parts water to reduce its osmotic pressure so that it can be subjected to a second reverse osmosis process. This second process is adjusted to take 70 parts concentrate C1 diluted to 6.3’ alcohol and to obtain 28 parts concentrate C2 at 6.3’ together with 42 parts permeate P2 likewise at 6.3’ alcohol content.

The permeates P1 and P2 are mixed together to obtain 102 parts permeate P at 9’ alcohol content. This permeate may be used in the preparation of alcoholic beverages as described further on.

In this example the overall alcohol efficiency is 84%.

Example 3 The process is similar to that described in example 2, hut instead of diluting the concentrate with water brought in from outside the system, the concentrate is diluted with a permeate obtained hy subjecting the permeate of the first filter stage to an intermediate reverse osmosis process (see Figure 3). 3 7 i 9 Thus the 60 parts permeate P1 at 11 ’ alcohol content are subjected to the intermediate reverse osmosis process which uses a membrane that ib substantially impermeable to alcohol.

The cell is adjusted to give 40 parts concentrate Ci at 15* alcohol and 20 parts permeate Pi at 3° alcohol.

The 20 parts of permeate Pi are added to the 40 parts of , concentrate C1 at 11’ from the first stage to constitute 60 parts of a product having 8.3° alcohol content. This product is subjected to tbe second reverse osmosis process which is adjusted to deliver 18 parts concentrate C2 at 8.3’ alcohol and 42 parts permeate P2 at 8.3’ alcohol.

The permeate P2 from the second reverse osmosis process is added to the concentrate Ci from the intermediate reverse osmosis process to obtain 82 parts of permeate P' at 11.6’ alcohol, which is then processed as described below.

The overall alcohol efficiency in this example is likewise about 84$.

By suitable combinations of the processes described in examples 2 and 3, the alcohol efficiency of the overall process 2q can be raised to about 95$.

Examples of the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.

The final permeate obtained from the process of one of the examples 1, 2 or 3 above is used as the basic constituent, and the following are added thereto.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage starting from a wine, which comprises subjecting the initial wine to hyperfiltration or to ultrafiltration 5 suitable for obtaining a permeate other than wine, while retaining drinking quality, said permeate constituting the basis of the desired beverage.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the initial wine is a red wine. 10

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the initial wine is a · «heavy^ red wine.

4. A method of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage starting from a wine which comprises subjecting the initial wine to hyperfiltration or to ultrafiltration 15 suitable for obtaining a permeate other than wine, and adding flavouring to said permeate, said flavoured permeate constituting the desired beverage.

5. A method of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage starting from a wine, which comprises subjecting the 20 initial wine to a hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration and collecting the permeate, said initial wine being a «heavy^> red wine, and said permeate constituting the basis of said beverage. 5 3 7 I Ο

6. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein at least a portion of the concentrate provided by the hyper- or ultra-filtration is returned to the wine being subjected to said hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration.

7. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the hyper- or ultra-filtration membrane is selected so that the concentration of alcohol in the permeate is substantially equal to the concentration of alcohol in the concentrate.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the concentrate resulting from a first hyper- or ultrafiltration is subjected to a second hyper- or ultrafiltration after being diluted, the permeate from the second hyper- or ultra-filtration being added to the permeate resulting from the first hyper- or ultrafiltration.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the concentrate resulting from the first hyper- or ultrafiltration is diluted by adding water.

10. A method according to claim 8, wherein the first concentrate is diluted by means of a permeate resulting from hyperfiltration of the permeate which results from the first hyper- or ultra-filtration and operated in such a manner as to provide a concentrate having a higher concentration of alcohol than the permeate from the first hyper- or ultra-filtration. £ .. ? ί y

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the concentrate having a high concentration of alcohol is added to the permeate resulting from the second hyperfiltration. 5

12. A method according to claim 1 of manufacturing an alcoholic beverage, substantially as hereinbefore described with particular reference to the accompanying Examples.

13. A product obtained by implementing a method 10 according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

14. An alcoholic beverage which is based on a permeate resulting from hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration of an initial red wine.

15. An alcoholic beverage which is based on a permeate 15 resulting from hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration of a

16. An alcoholic beverage according to claim 14 or 15, which contains none of the dry matter of the initial //heavy red wine. 20

17. An alcoholic beverage which is constituted by mixing a beverage according to any one of claims 14 to 16 with a beverage having a higher concentration of alcohol.

18. An alcoholic beverage which is constituted by 25 mixing a beverage according to any one of claims 14 to 16 with a beverage having a lower concentration of alcohol. Ό 3 7 1 ί)

19. An alcoholic beverage according to claim 14, substantially as hereinbefore described with particular reference to the accompanying Examples.

20. An alcoholic beverage which results from aerating 5 a beverage according to any one of claims 14 to 19.