Abstract: Hydrolysis of plant kingdom polysaccharides by treatment with SPS-ase preparations.SPS-ase is an enzyme adapted to hydrolyzing the water-soluble protein binding polysaccharide present in soy flour decomposed by use of conventional pectinases, which polysaccharide is believed to be widespread in plant kingdom substances. Treatment with an SPS-ase preparation can clarify juices, wines and beers, hydrolyze process wastes such as sugar beet pulp, pomace, and soy milk remanence, improve the digestability of silage, and reduce the viscosity of wort.

Abstract: Living, fermentable yeast cells are prepared having an enzyme or mixture of enzymes coupled thereto. Enzyme coupling is carried out by contacting at least partially dehydrated living yeast cells with an aqueous enzyme solution to cause the yeast cells to rehydrate and a layer of enzyme to form on the surface of the yeast cells, and than contacting the rehydrated yeast cells with an enzyme-precipitating solution which optionally contains a cross-linking agent to cause the enzyme to become attached to the yeast cells. An aqueous solution of tannin is preferably the enzyme-precipitating solution and gluardialdehyde is preferably the cross-linking agent. Pepsin coupled to Saccharomyces yeast, when used to ferment grape must to produce wine, results in practically foam-free attenuation, quicker fermentation and better self-clarification. Saccharomyces yeast having amgloglucosidase coupled thereto may be used to ferment beer wort to produce a diet beer.

Abstract: A superattenuated low caloric beer is produced by passing fermenting beer through an immobilized glucoamylase reactor having active glucoamylase immobilized on a ceramic monolith. The ceramic monolith has open ended passages ranging from 50 to 3,000 microns in diameter through which the beer passes, and glucoamylase is covalently bonded to internal surfaces of the passages. The glucoamylase is preferably covalently bonded by reacting an aldehydic derivative of glucoamylase with an aminofunctional group on the internal surfaces of the passages to form an aldimine which is reduced to a secondary amine. The reactor can sustain high flow rates of beer containing yeast and other particulate matter without plugging or fouling, and it is operationally stable under fermentation conditions over a long period of time.

Abstract: An apparatus for fermenting and carbonating beverages comprises a container for holding a quantity of beverage to be treated. A cap for closing the container has a cup attached to the top thereof and a valve therein for permitting access between the inside of the container and the cup. A first tubular chamber is attached to the inside of the cap by means of a depending circular flange. The first chamber with a valve in one end contains a charge of carbonating material which treats the beverage as it enters the container through an aperture therein. A second tubular chamber is attached to the inside of the cap by means of an outer depending concentric circular flange. The second chamber where fermenting occurs has a plurality of apertures therein for permitting free flow of the beverage therethrough and a micro-fine filter therein for trapping sediment during the fermenting and carbonating process.

Abstract: A composition and method for preserving hops at room temperature utilizes the inherent properties of fermentable hydroscopic powders to retain essential volatile oils and hop acids for extended periods of time. The composition is an intimate mixture of a fermentable hydroscopic powder such as maltose and dextrose and granulated hops having a low moisture content. This composition is prepared by reducing the size of the hops to a granular size and mixing the hops intimately with an equal or greater weight of hydroscopic powder.

Abstract: The specification discloses a novel brewers' yeast strain and a method of manufacturing the same. The yeast is a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and has been deposited at the National Collection of Yeast Cultures, Norwich, England under the number 962. Morphologically the giant colony of the novel strain can be described as a circular colony having a slightly serrated periphery, a convex surface topography with a central, globular dome and exhibiting primary concentric convolutions and secondary radial convolutions which, in combination, impart a rough appearance to the surface. The novel ale strain has the advantages that it is effective in worts having high plato values and is a bottom-cropping strain.

Abstract: Beer brewed from malted barley and having a rice adjunct can be produced at higher gravity cold wort concentrations without excessive viscosity build-up by using low gel point rice.

Abstract: Beer is brewed by a process which comprises mixing a high-gravity liquor comprising a fermenting wort of an original gravity of 14 to 21 degrees of plato after the high kraeusen period and a low-gravity liquor comprising a fermenting wort or wort of an original gravity of 3 to 6 degrees of plato and subjecting the resulting mixture to fermentation thereby to obtain a beer of an original gravity of 6 to 9 degrees of plato.

Abstract: An alcoholic beverage having improved taste and sweetness and a wine-like flavor is produced by steps of saccharifying steamed or cooked unpolished rice and/or reddish rcie with an enzyme composition containing a saccharifying enzyme substantially free of protease and producing by a microorganism selected from Rhizopus, Aspergillus, Endomyces, or Bacillus substilis, fermenting the resulting mash with yeast until a supernatant thererof reaches a certain degree of maturity and mixing the resultant matured mash with separately saccharified steamed or cooked rice or a saccharide to produce the beverage. A slurry of steamed or cooked rice may be added during yeast fermentation to simultaneously carry out fermentation and saccharification.

Abstract: A debranching enzyme (pullulanese) useful in the preparation of a low calorie beer may be obtained from rice by extraction of the rice with an aqueous buffer system having a pH of about 6. A preferred buffer system is 0.1 M potassium phosphate-0.2 M-sodium chloride. Extraction is preferably carried out at a temperature of about 50.degree. C. for about 3 hours. When malted rice is used as the enzyme source a particularly useful mixture of the debranching enzyme and alpha 1,4 carbohydrases is obtained.

Abstract: Low calorie beer is prepared by introducing into the brewing process a debranching enzyme (pullulanase) obtained from rice, a traditional brewing material. The debranching enzyme reduces the real extract of the beer by cleaving alpha 1,6 linkages of unfermentable limit dextrins to form alpha 1,4 dextrins which can be converted by alpha 1,4 carbohydrases to sugars that can be fermented by brewer's yeast. The enzyme may be introduced into the brewing process by adding rice or the enzyme extracted from rice to the mash or to the wort before or during fermentation. The debranching enzyme may be obtained from polished dry milled rice by extraction with an aqueous buffer solution. When malted rice is used as the enzyme source a particularly useful mixture of the debranching enzyme and alpha 1,4 carbohydrases is obtained.

Abstract: A method of purifying aqueous solutions of iso-.alpha.-acids by removing .beta.-acids therefrom comprises first bringing the solution to an iso-.alpha.-acid concentration of 0.5% to 10% .sup.w /w, particularly 0.5% to 5% .sup.w /w, then reducing the pH to a value in the range 7 to 10, preferably 8 to 9, so as to form an easily filtered precipitate of .beta.-acids. Preferably pH reduction is effected by bubbling carbon dioxide through the solution. The separated iso-.alpha.-acid solution may be concentrated to an extent that a phase separation takes place into two aqueous phases one of which has a higher iso-.alpha.-acid concentration than the other. The recovered iso-.alpha.-acid solution is suitable for direct addition to beer without haze formation.

Abstract: An antifoaming agent for reducing foaming during fermentation is produced by extracting ground malt with an ethanol solution having an ethanol concentration in excess of 75% to produce an ethanolic extract, separating the ethanolic extract from the ground malt and concentrating the ethanolic extract to obtain the antifoaming agent. The anti-foaming agent is particularly advantageous for use in fermentation of beer wort since it constitutes only constitutents normally in beer.

Abstract: Isomerization of alpha acids contained in hop extracts obtained with liquid or fluid CO.sub.2 or organic solvents is carried out by mixing the extract with one or more adsorption agents and treating the resulting mixture in a closed pressurized container with fluid CO.sub.2 under a pressure greater than 50 bars and at a temperature greater than 33.degree. C. to form iso-alpha acids. During isomerization in the container, essentially no iso-alpha acids become dissolved in the fluid CO.sub.2 and the iso-alpha acids are removed from the container as a dry substance. Adsorption agents that may be used are bentonite, fuller's earth, and alkali and alkaline earth metal salts or oxides.

Abstract: Continuous fermentation of solutions such as grape juice with wine yeast is carried out in a tower under sterile conditions. In the process, a tower with an enlarged upper end section is sterilized with steam followed by introducing sterile gas into the tower to maintain a positive pressure of sterilized gas therein, then continuously introducing a fermentable solution into the lower end of the tower, fermenting the solution while introducing a stream of bubbles of sterile gas to agitate the solution, continuously removing fermentation products from the upper end section of the tower, separating yeast from the products and reintroducing the yeast into the lower end of the tower. Before fermentation of the solution, yeast may be cultured under aerobic conditions and when the desired yeast concentration is reached, the solution to be fermented is introduced and fermented under anaerobic conditions.

Abstract: Hop extracts useful in the preparation of anactinic or light stable malt beverages are obtained by a method which does not use organic solvents. The extracts are obtained by first treating a crude hop extract containing humulone with an aqueous reducing solution, heating the resulting mixture to form reduced isohumulone, acidifying the reaction mixture to form an aqueous phase and an organic phase, and then adjusting the temperature to facilitate the separation of the two phases. The organic phase which is obtained contains the desired isomerized and reduced humulone and it can be used per se as an anactinic brew kettle flavoring additive for beer or ale. In a preferred embodiment, the organic phase is further treated with an amount of an aqueous KOH solution sufficient to neutralize the reduced isohumulone and to form both an aqueous phase and a solid phase.

Abstract: A culture filtrate of Cladosporium resinae (Strain ATCC No. 20495) has been found to contain a mixture of starch-degrading enzymes capable of bringing about efficient conversion of starch and pullulan into glucose. Culture conditions resulting in optimal production of the pullulan degrading activity been established. The amylolytic enzyme preparation obtained by culturing the fungus under these optimal conditions has been fractionated by ion-exchange and molecular sieve chromatography and shown to contain at least four enzymes, a maltase, .alpha.-amylase and two glucoamylase-type enzymes including a novel exo-pullulanase. The maltase and glucoamylase enzymes have been purified to homogeneity and their substrate specificity investigated. Both the mixture and the exo-pullulanase can be used in the manufacture of dextrose from starch.

Abstract: A powdered malt wort product for preparing beverages is produced by fermenting a brewer's malt wort with a lactic acid producing bacteria such as Streptococcus faecalis and then spray-drying the fermented wort. The resultant powdered fermented wort may be mixed with cocoa or chocolate, plus milk solids and sugar to produce a beverage.

Abstract: A method of providing a high quality iso-.alpha.-acid preparation is described. The method involves extracting a high quality primary extract containing .alpha.-acids from hops using liquid CO.sub.2 and isomerizing the .alpha.-acids in the primary extract. The liquid CO.sub.2 extraction is performed at a sub-critical temperature of not less than -5.degree. C. The primary extract contains .alpha.-acids, .beta.-acids, hop oil and usually no significant amounts of other organic compounds originating from the hops. In the preferred method the primary extract is not purified and the isomerization is performed by boiling an alkaline solution of the extract. This boiling can be utilized to remove the hop oil. The .beta.-acids can be readily removed by acidifying the solution of iso-.alpha.-acid and filtering off the precipitated .beta.-acids. The iso-.alpha.

Abstract: Brewer's wort is prepared by a process comprising the steps of forming at 82.degree. to 88.degree. C. an aqueous mash containing malted cereal, unmalted cereal and an effective amount of a starch liquefying thermostable alpha amylase; maintaining the mash at such temperature until a substantial amount of the cereal starch has been liquefied; cooling the mash to a temperature of 60 to 65.degree. C.; adding an effective amount of starch saccharifying diastatic enzyme to the mash; maintaining the resulting mixture at 60 to 65.degree. C. until a substantial amount of the cereal starch has been saccharified; then raising the temperature of the mash to at least 72.degree. C. and maintaining the mash at this temperature until the starch has been completely converted.

Abstract: A low calorie, low carbohydrate beer is produced by carrying out a separate mashing of malt at temperatures which substantially inactivate microorganisms without deactivating enzymes of the malt and adding this mash to wort in a primary and/or secondary fermentor to produce a final beer having a reduced carbohydrate and calorie content.

Abstract: Malt having a high content of alpha-1,6-hydrolase activity is prepared by germinating previously steeped barely until the average acrospire reaches a length of at least 11/4 times the average length of the kernals and it contains at least 55 units of alpha-1,6-hydrolase activity per gram of malt. The malt provides more complete hydrolyzing of starch to glucose and maltose, and it is useful in producing low carbohydrate beer, in producing distilled alcoholic beverages and in producing maltose syrup.

Abstract: An improved method of mashing and lautering. A mash is formed having a high malt to water ratio in the range of about 0.30 to 0.45 to 1. After mashing, and prior to lautering, the mash is diluted with water to produce an equivalent malt-to-water ratio below 0.25 to 1 and generally in the range of about 0.19 to 0.22 to 1. The diluted mash is then lautered by standard procedures to separate the wort from the spent grains. Due to the high concentration of malt in the mash, the conversion yield, or the amount of dissolved solids extracted from the malt, is increased and the dilution prior to lautering not only reduces the time for lautering but also upsets the concentration equilibrium between the liquids and grains, causing a further improvement in the extract yield.

Abstract: A method of providing a high quality iso-.alpha.-acid preparation is described. The method involves extracting a high quality primary extract containing .alpha.-acids from hops using liquid CO.sub.2 and isomerizing the .alpha.-acids in the primary extract. The liquid CO.sub.2 extraction is performed at a sub-critical temperature of not less than -5.degree. C. The primary extract contains .alpha.-acids, .beta.acids, hop oil and usually no significant amounts of other organic compounds originating from the hops. In the preferred method the primary extract is not purified and the isomerization is performed by boiling an alkaline solution of the extract. This boiling can be utilized to remove the hop oil. The .beta.-acids can be readily removed by acidifying the solution of iso-.alpha.-acid and filtering off the precipitated .beta.-acids. The iso-.alpha.

Abstract: The conventional brewing process for producing a malt beverage which includes the preparation of a mash, the conversion of the mash to wort, the boiling of the wort, cooling of the wort and fermentation, is substantially abbreviated, e.g. by as much as 50% by subjecting malt flour to air classification to produce a fraction having a high starch content which is used in the mash, whereby the mash conversion and wort boiling steps can be combined in a one-kettle operation to yield a fermentable boiled wort. Moreover, the by-product of the air-classification is a high protein malt flour which can be used to make bread.

Abstract: A method of cooling beer, wherein beer contained in a cylindrical fermentation tank of a large capacity and undergoing a fermentation process extending from the beginning of fermentation to the termination of fermentation, is cooled by employing cooling jackets mounted on the external wall surface of the sidewall of the tank and on the bottom of the tank and wherein cooling is more intense at the lower layer of beer in the tank.

Abstract: In the brewing of beer, spent grain at about 90% moisture from a straining tank having no internal rotating rake is collected and pumped to a centrifuge which reduces the moisture of the spent grain to about 70% and provides spent grain liquor of about 2.0 to 4.5% or more of total solids. The spent grain liquor is stored in a tank at 165.degree. F. to 170.degree. F. and held until it is used up to 50% of the sparge liquid for a subsequent brew in the straining tank. The spent grains at about 70% moisture are directed to a large holding tank. Nutritious brewery waste streams are added thereby increasing the nutritional value.

Abstract: A method for preparing vitamin B.sub.1 in a fermentation process involves cultivating mutants of yeast of the genus Saccharomyces Meyen emend Reess that synthesize this vitamin from sugars and inorganic salts and excrete it from living cells into fermentation media.

Abstract: A method of preparing a lager beer having a mild, bland, less aromatic character comprises conducting the fermentation of the wort for about 60 to 200 hours under suitable conditions to maintain the dissolved carbon dioxide concentration in the fermenting wort at about 2.1 to about 4.0 cc of dissolved carbon dioxide per cc of wort. In a preferred embodiment, the fermentation of the wort is conducted at a temperature of 60.degree. to 85.degree. F. with an appropriate overpressure of from 5 to 40 psig of carbon dioxide. The beer thus obtained has a mild character and can be used, if desired, as a base for flavored beverages.

Abstract: Torrefied, expanded barley for use as a partial replacement for malt in brewer's mashes is prepared by heating unmalted barley having a protein content of at least about 12% to a temperature sufficient to expand the barley to a degree that a given volume of barley before heating weights about 1.4 to about 1.75 times the weight of the same volume of barley after heating. Before heating, the unmalted barley preferably has a moisture content of about 12% to 20% by weight.

Abstract: Haze formation in beer caused by anthocyanogens is reduced by using a mutant strain of barley having low anthocyanogen content as the source of barley or malted barley from which wort is prepared in the brewing process.

Abstract: Brewer's wort, having a high concentration of fermentable carbohydrates and solids such as 18.degree. to 36.degree. Plato which would normally ferment very slowly or incompletely, is fermented by utilizing water dilution at a point during fermentation to reduce the content of fermentable carbohydrates and solids to below 18.degree. Plato so that fermentation proceeds to completion without inhibition. Water dilution is carried out when the fermentable carbohydrate content of the fermenting wort is 30% to 70% of its original value and after initial foam collapse within about 24-48 hours after the start of fermentation. This process makes it possible to use the headspace of the fermenting vessel which is normally set aside for initial foam generation and results in a substantial increase in productivity.

Abstract: A low dextrin and low carbohydrate beer having reduced calories is produced by fermenting wort with yeast in the absence of readily fermentable carbohydrates so that the yeast act on fermentable ingredients in the wort other than readily fermentable carbohydrates. After fermenting a major portion of fermentable ingredients, there is added to the resulting alcoholic wort a quantity of one or more readily fermentable sugars and fermentation is continued until the real degree of fermentation is at least 80%. By this process a low calorie beer can be prepared without the use of a carbohydrate splitting enzyme such as amyloglucosidase.

Abstract: A beta-glucanase is prepared through the cultivation of Aspergillus phoenicis (Cda.) Thom or Aspergillus saitoi var Kagoshimaensis. This enzyme hydrolyzes the beta glucan of barley and can be employed to adjust the viscosity of wort and beer, through incorporation of the enzyme in mash or beer.

Abstract: Stale flavor formation in beer is reduced by contracting malt, prior to extracting to produce wort, with a primary or secondary mono- or polyhydric alcohol or with acetic acid or with dimethylsulfoxide to reduce the amount of precursors of 2-trans-nonenal present in the malt.

Abstract: A non-distilled beer-type beverage is produced from a wort prepared from hydrolyzed starch that is fortified with a protein hydrolyzate, a source of ammonium ions and potassium phosphate.

Abstract: A method of accelerating the fermentation of a lager-type beer comprises conducting the fermentation at an elevated temperature with or without exogenous agitation while maintaining the dissolved carbon dioxide concentration in the fermentation liquor at a level approximating that found in a fermentation liquor during a normal supersaturated lager-type bottom-fermentation. The level of dissolved carbon dioxide is maintained at about 1.5 to about 2.0 cc per cc of beer by use of an overpressure of 2-20 psig of carbon dioxide.

Abstract: Beer is brewed by a method in which a malted grain is combined with starch from a barley variety characterized by containing starch granules which are self-liquefying and produced by cross-breeding a first barley variety characterized by a hulless gene, n n on chromosome 1 and a second barley variety which is characterized by a waxy endosperm gene wx wx on chromosome 1.

Abstract: The bubbling of poorly soluble gases into fermentation liquids either for the replenishment of dissolved oxygen or for removal of excess super-saturated CO.sub.2 can lead to severe foaming problems, particularly in deep fermentation vessels. The present invention overcomes this problem by dissolving the gas in an aqueous medium, usually water, under superatmospheric conditions and injecting the gas solution into the fermentation liquid in controlled quantities under conditions such that the gas is either retained in solution in the fermentation liquid or, at most, the gas is released from solution in the form of microbubbles of much smaller size than can be obtained by passing gas through a porous diffuser. Microbubbles may be released from the gas solution by injecting the pressurized gas solution into the fermentation liquid under conditions of high shear rate.

Abstract: Beer is prepared by a process involving separately fermenting with yeast a malt wort containing malt extract, and an adjunct sugar solution, separating yeast after fermentation and blending the fermented malt wort and the fermented sugar solution to provide a beer product closely similar in flavor to beer made by fermenting a wort containing malt extract and a sugar adjunct. This process allows the fermentation of solutions having a low content of nitrogenous substances without producing unpleasant flavors, and the process provides substantial savings in capital and operating costs in breweries.

Abstract: An alcoholic malt beverage base is produced by preparing wort having a solids content of about 18.degree. to 24.degree. plato from an all malt mash, adding fermentable sugar to the wort, boiling to resultant sugar-containing wort, adding water to the boiled wort to adjust the solids content, adding yeast to the boiled wort after cooling and fermenting for a certain time and at a certain temperature, adding additional yeast, continuing fermentation at a higher temperature to a desired end point, cooling the fermented wort and separating solids therefrom. The beverage base has an alcohol content of about 5.5% to 9% and has a clean pleasant taste without off-aromas.

Abstract: Production of fermented liquids such as beer is continuously carried out under sterile conditions by flash sterilizing a mixture of wort and bitter substances by direct steam injection, boiling the mixture to complete transformation of bitter substances incorporated in the wort, decanting a precipitate formed in the wort under aeration of the wort by sterile air or oxygen, fermenting the wort by bringing the wort under sterile conditions into contact with yeast immobilized on an inert support, storing the fermented wort in the presence of yeast under sterile conditions and passing the fermented wort under sterile conditions into contact with a protease fixed on a support.

Abstract: Alcoholic beverages such as beer are preserved without pasteurization by mechanically removing microorganisms from the beverage and by carrying out the removing of microorganisms and all subsequent treatment of the beverage including bottling and sealing in a circuit free of air.

Abstract: Mash is separated into draff and clarified beer wort using a cylindrical upright vessel having an upper portion with a circumferential wall, a lower portion conically converging toward an apertured support forming the bottom of the vessel, and a suction chamber connected to the vessel bottom having a lower conical portion with an outlet for wort and having a conduit leading from the side for applying a vacuum.

Abstract: The present invention provides a flavoring agent suitable for addition to fermented beer. The flavoring agent is an aqueous solution of water and potassium isohumulates substantially free from lupulones and fixed essential oils of hops. The invention also provides a method for flavoring beer by adding a hop extract consisting essentially of an aqueous solution containing between about 40% and 60% by weight of potassium isohumulates which are substantially free from lupulones and fixed and essential oils of hops.

Abstract: Wort is continuously supplied to a circuit including an elongated closed channel and through which micro-organisms are fed. After fermentation has taken place in the circuit, the mixture of wort and micro-organisms is centrifuged to separate it into fermented wort, a living cell mass and impurities, these three components being separately discharged from the centrifuge. The separate discharges of fermented wort and living cell mass are continuous, and the latter discharge includes an excess of living cells formed in the circuit, an amount of cell mass corresponding to this excess being discharged from the circuit.

Abstract: Fat is removed from starch-containing vegetable material such as cereal grains, potatoes or tapioca by a process involving crushing the vegetable material, contacting the crushed material with a normally gaseous inert solvent under supercritical condition at a temperature of about 20.degree. to 100.degree.C and a pressure of about 30 to 1000 atmospheres to dissolve fat from the vegetable material into the solvent, separating the fat-containing solvent from the resultant substantially fat-free vegetable residue, and separating the dissolved fat from the solvent by raising the temperature and/or lowering the pressure to separate vaporized solvent from the fat. The vaporized solvent may be liquefied and recycled. The fat-free residue may be treated to dissolve away gluten, to form glucose by enzymatic hydrolysis and/or subjected to alcoholic fermentation.