U.S. patent application number 15/085616 was filed with the patent office on 2016-10-06 for aging of alcoholic beverages using controlled mechanically induced cavitation.
The applicant listed for this patent is Hydro Dynamics, Inc.. Invention is credited to Douglas G. Mancosky.
Application Number | 20160289619 15/085616 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 63246071 |
Filed Date | 2016-10-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160289619 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Mancosky; Douglas G. |
October 6, 2016 |
Aging of Alcoholic Beverages Using Controlled Mechanically Induced
Cavitation
Abstract
An extreme acceleration of the process of aging spirits to
obtain aged liquors includes circulating the spirits through a
cavitation zone within a controlled cavitation reactor and exposing
the spirits therein to high energy cavitation induced shockwaves.
Sources of flavor and color such as charred wood chips may be added
to the spirits to provide the color and flavor of liquors aged for
years in traditional charred oak barrels. The method and apparatus
of the present invention obtains the same conversion of undesirable
alcohols, flavor extraction, and color as years of aging in an oak
barrel but does so in a matter of minutes or hours. The apparatus
and method also can be used in conjunction with traditional aging
techniques and methods and the total aging time is still reduced
dramatically.
Inventors: |
Mancosky; Douglas G.;
(White, GA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Hydro Dynamics, Inc. |
Rome |
GA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
63246071 |
Appl. No.: |
15/085616 |
Filed: |
March 30, 2016 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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62141595 |
Apr 1, 2015 |
|
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|
62293069 |
Feb 9, 2016 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
C12G 3/07 20190201; B01F
7/00816 20130101; C12H 1/16 20130101; C12C 5/026 20130101; C12H
1/165 20130101 |
International
Class: |
C12H 1/16 20060101
C12H001/16; C12G 1/00 20060101 C12G001/00; C12G 3/07 20060101
C12G003/07; C12C 5/02 20060101 C12C005/02 |
Claims
1. A method of aging an alcoholic beverage to produce an aged
beverage, the method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a
volume of alcoholic beverage to be aged; and (b) subjecting the
alcoholic beverage, to cavitation within a cavitation zone of a
controlled cavitation reactor.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (b) comprises circulating the
alcoholic beverage through the cavitation zone two or more
times.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of introducing
additives to the alcoholic beverage prior to step (b).
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the additives comprise wood
chips.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising charring the wood chips
prior to introducing them to the distilled spirits.
6. The method of claim 3 wherein the additives comprise
flavorings.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of at least
partially aging the alcoholic beverage in a vessel prior to step
(b).
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the vessel comprises a charred
barrel.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of at least
partially aging the alcoholic beverage in a vessel following step
(b).
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the vessel comprises a charred
barrel.
11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step following
step (b) of cooling the alcoholic beverage in a heat exchanger.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the alcoholic beverage comprises
distilled spirits.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the alcoholic beverage comprises
beer.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising adding hops to the
beer prior to step (b).
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the alcoholic beverage comprises
wine.
16. A method of aging an alcoholic beverage to produce an aged
alcoholic beverage, the method comprising the steps of: (a)
collecting the alcoholic beverage in a reservoir tank; (b) pumping
the alcoholic beverage from the reservoir tank to a controlled
cavitation reactor having a cavitation zone; (c) passing the
alcoholic beverage through the cavitation zone of the controlled
cavitation reactor to break down undesirable components in the
alcoholic beverage normally broken down by time in an aging vessel
to produce an aged alcoholic beverage; (d) moving the aged
alcoholic beverage back to the reservoir tank; and (e) optionally
repeating steps (b) through (d) to expose the aged alcoholic
beverage to cavitation within the cavitation zone a predetermined
number of times to age the alcoholic beverage further; and (f)
collecting the aged alcoholic beverage.
17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of
introducing additives into the alcoholic beverage prior to step
(c).
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the additives comprise wood
chips.
19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of charring
the wood chips prior to introducing them into the alcoholic
beverage.
20. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step prior to
step (a) of partially aging the alcoholic beverage in an aging
vessel.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the aging vessel comprises a
charred wood barrel.
22. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step following
step (f) of storing the collected aged alcoholic beverage in an
aging vessel for a predetermined period of time.
23. The method of claim 22 wherein the aging vessel comprises a
charred wooden barrel.
24. The method of claim 16 wherein the alcoholic beverage comprises
a distilled spirit, beer, or wine.
Description
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] Priority is hereby claimed to the filing date of U.S.
provisional patent application 62/141,595 filed on Apr. 1, 2015 and
to the filing date of U.S. provisional patent application
62/293,069 filed on Feb. 9, 2016. The contents of these provisional
patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] This disclosure relates generally to the aging of alcoholic
beverages such as distilled spirits, beer, and wine, and more
specifically to the rapid aging of alcoholic beverages using
controlled mechanically induced cavitation to enhance maturity and
drinkability of resulting beverages thereby simulating traditional
aging.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The most desired of spirits are aged. Examples include
whisky, scotch, bourbon, tequila, and many others. Likewise, beer
and wine also are aged prior to drinking. These aged products are
more expensive by virtue of the time and resources expended during
the aging process and arguably have more enjoyable flavors and
aromas than alcoholic beverages that are non-aged. The aging
process softens the `burn` of the ethanol while smoothing out
flavors and adding even more pleasant ones. Further, undesirable
and even poisonous alcohols and other products are largely
converted to more desirable and less offensive tasting esters
during aging.
[0004] Traditionally, newly distilled spirits are aged in a variety
of ways, with perhaps the most common being barrel aging. Newly
distilled or "white" whisky, for example, is commonly aged in
Southern white oak barrels that have been burnt or charred on the
inside. Aging exposes the alcohol and other compounds both to
oxygen in the air and the storage materials themselves (charred oak
for instance) for long periods of time, usually many years or even
decades. This alters the chemical structure of many of the
alcoholic compounds and changes the color, aroma, and flavor of the
resulting liquor in various and mostly beneficial ways. Beer and
wine also are aged in aging vessels for similar reasons.
[0005] Alcoholic beverages are created through fermentation of a
biological product, be it grapes, grain mash, fruit, plants, or
another product. In the case of distilled spirits, distillation
yields primarily ethanol, but also produces aldehydes, esters, and
fatty acids, all of which have very specific flavors and aromas. It
is at least in part the unique combination of these chemicals that
make spirits different from one another. Multiple distillations and
filtering can remove many of these compounds to create a "clean" or
aromaless and flavorless spirit such as Vodka. The choice of raw
materials, the fermentation process, and the distillation technique
and equipment will all contribute to the overall chemical
composition and therefore the aroma and taste of the final
product.
[0006] Distilling alcohol creates beneficial byproducts, as
mentioned above, but also creates bad-tasting and poisonous
byproducts, including butane, methanol, hydrazines, acetates, and
acetaldehydes. Both good and bad byproducts often are grouped
together under the label "congeners." Fortunately, the good
congeners happen to be quite stable, whereas the bad ones break
down or are converted to more desirable compounds or at least to
inert compounds over time. Aging a distilled product allows this
time to pass, thereby decreasing the amount of bad tastes and
poisons and increasing the amount of good flavor and aroma.
Research has shown that basically all the effects of aging occur
within fifteen years with virtually no perceptible change in aroma
and flavor occurring thereafter. This is part of the reason why,
for instance, most scotch is aged for between 12 and 15 years.
[0007] There have been attempts over the years to obtain the
beneficial chemical changes in distilled spirits caused by aging
without having to wait for years for them to occur. Some
distillers, for example, prefer to age spirits in small barrels,
which increases the relative area of contact between the spirits
and the inside of the barrel. This has not been completely
successful however and still can require several years to obtain
desired benefits. More recently. so-called artificially accelerated
aging has become known and has been tried. In one such process, a
distilled spirit is pumped through an oxygenated chamber, where it
is subjected to high-intensity ultrasonic energy or sound waves.
The agitation caused by the sound waves induces esterification. It
has been shown that this process can at least to some extent
artificially replicate the aging process of liquor such as whisky
by inducing more harsh "higher" alcohols like isopropanol to react
with fatty acids to produce esters with more pleasant flavors. This
is often referred to "oxidation" in the industry. While it is
claimed that ultrasound aging can reduce the production of aged
liquors from years to hours, the result has not been completely
satisfactory at least in part because it has proven very
challenging to scale up ultrasound processes to commercial
production volumes.
[0008] A need exists for a method and apparatus that can obtain the
same beneficial chemical reactions and infusion of flavors in
alcoholic beverages such as distilled spirits, beer and wine caused
by traditional aging, but obtains them in hours rather than years.
The method should be able to age alcoholic beverages in a
continuous process and in commercial volumes. It is to the
provision of such a method and an apparatus for carrying out the
method that the present invention is primarily directed.
SUMMARY
[0009] Briefly described, a method and apparatus is disclosed, for
aging an alcoholic beverage such as distilled spirits, beer, or
wine (which may collectively be referred to herein as "spirits") in
hours rather than years. The process can be used to age spirits in
commercial volumes and in such a way that the final product is
virtually indistinguishable from spirits aged for years in barrels
or other aging vessels. The method includes passing liquid spirits
through a treatment zone and inducing is the liquid highly
energetic cavitation events. Preferably, the liquid is passed
through a controlled cavitation reactor such as that disclosed in
U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,465,642; 8,430,968; 7,507,014; 7,360,755; and
6,627,784, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its
entirety. The reactor has a closed cylindrical housing within which
a cylindrical rotor is rotatably mounted. The treatment zone is
defined between the outer surface of the rotor and the inner
surface of the housing. Bores are formed through the outer surface
of the rotor and when the rotor is rotated at a high rate with
spirits in the treatment zone, very energetic cavitation events are
generated within the bores.
[0010] The cavitation events within the bores in turn generate
micro shock waves that propagate through the spirits in the
treatment zone. The shock waves, which are very highly energetic,
break down undesirable alcohols, tannins, and other chemicals in
the spirits just as traditional aging does, thus mellowing the
taste of the spirits. In one exemplary embodiment, charred wood
chips are mixed with distilled spirits and the cavitation events
draw out the flavors from the wood chips and infuse them in the
distilled spirits. The result is liquor comparable in color, aroma,
and taste to that obtained from years of aging in a barrel, but
requiring minutes or hours rather than years to obtain. In another
embodiment, hops are added to beer and the shock waves draw out the
flavor of the hops and infuse the flavor in the beer more
efficiently than traditional aging.
[0011] With the proliferation of craft breweries and their more
heavily hopped beers, the demand for hops and their prices have
increased. Typically only about one third of the flavor potential
is extracted from hops during traditional beer aging. Hops can be
added for bittering purposes prior to fermentation or for flavor
purposes post fermentation, often called dry hopping. Using the
pressure fluctuations of shock waves from cavitation, hop flavor
can be extracted and infused into beer much more efficiently in a
very short time, This is accomplished in a relatively low shear
environment to minimize protein damage to the hops and to minimize
fines production. The ultimate result is a reduction in hops usage
to produce a desired hops flavor in beer as well as higher yields
due to more efficient flavor extraction and less beer soaked hop
waste. Other flavorings such as coffee or chocolate also can be
added,
[0012] Red "young wines" often have a strong tannin taste.
Reduction of tannins commonly requires aging of wine in barrels or
stainless steel aging vessels for many years. This reduces the
tannins and leads to improved taste and thus increased value, This
tannin reduction is a chemical reaction and it has been found that
this chemical reaction can be sped up greatly by passing young wine
through a controlled cavitation reactor according to the present
invention. Accordingly, the present invention can be applied to
wine, with or without added flavorings, to reduce or eliminate the
traditional aging process.
[0013] These and other aspects, features, and advantages of the
present invention will be better appreciated upon review of the
detailed description set forth below taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawing figures, which are briefly described as
follows,
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing one embodiment of an
apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention.
[0015] FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing another embodiment of the
invention used here in conjunction with traditional pre-aging.
[0016] FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing yet another embodiment of
the invention used here in conjunction with traditional
post-aging.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] The invention will now be described in more detail and this
description should be reviewed in conjunction with the accompanying
drawing figures for enhanced clarity. Mechanically induced and
controlled cavitation such as that produced by the controlled
cavitation devices disclosed in the incorporated references is used
according to the present invention to obtain artificial aging of
alcoholic beverages such as distilled spirits on a high volume
commercial scale. In one embodiment, the system includes a
reservoir tank for holding an alcoholic beverage during the aging
process. A pump circulates the beverage from the reservoir tank,
through the controlled cavitation device, and back to the reservoir
tank. In this way, the alcoholic beverage being aged can be
circulated through the controlled cavitation device for as many
cycles as necessary to obtain the desired degree of aging and
flavoring.
[0018] In another embodiment, charred wood chips are added to
distilled spirits and become entrained in the flow through the
controlled cavitation device. The intense cavitation to which the
spirits and wood chips are subjected in the cavitation device
penetrate the wood chips and extracts color and flavor from them,
which is infused into the liquid. This process also drives the
liquid spirits into and out of the pores of the chips, which helps
filter some undesirable compounds from the mix in much the same way
that the charred interior of an oak barrel does over years of
traditional aging. In other embodiments, hops and/or other flavors
may be added to the alcoholic beverage for the aging of beers for
example. Other flavoring and/or aroma sources such as fruits, oils,
chocolates, flowers, spices, and other substances may be added for
the production of a variety of products from flavored liquors to
beer to wine and even to perfumes.
[0019] When used to age distilled spirits, the system of this
invention can run for varying periods of time to obtain numerous
cycles of a mixture through the controlled cavitation device.
Varying amounts of char and various species of wood chips and/or
flavoring may be selected to obtain a desired flavor, color, and
filtration effect. It has been found that the time required for
aging can range from a few minutes to many hours depending upon the
composition of the original distilled spirit, the amount of desired
color and flavor desired, and the number of years of traditional
aging being matched. A heat exchanger may also be incorporated in
the loop for longer runs to dissipate heat build up caused by the
cavitation device and any exothermic reactions occurring in the
mix.
[0020] Internal clearances within the controlled cavitation device
such as the space between the rotor and interior wails of the
housing may be adjusted to accommodate different size charred wood
chips. This is advantageous since wood chip surface area is an
independent variable in the resultant aging process. Wood chips may
also be substituted with a replaceable wooden ring insert that is
internally concentric to the controlled cavitation device housing.
Such a ring can be charred prior to an aging process to obtain the
same desirable characteristics as the charred interior walls of a
traditional oak barrel. In either event, the spirits are forced
into and out of the pores of the charred wood chips or charred ring
by the high intensity shock wave induced pressure variations,
thereby releasing color and flavor into the mix. The intense
pressure fluctuation also functions to remove sulfur species and
other contaminants from distilled spirits through a filtration
process akin to charcoal filtration. More specifically, the spirits
are forced by the pressure variations into and out, of the pores
and particles of the charred wood, which filters the spirits in
much the same way as an activated charcoal filter bed.
Advantageously, the flavoring, coloring, and filtering process are
accelerated by orders of magnitude over traditional barrel aging
processes.
[0021] As mentioned above, ultrasound has been used in the past to
obtain somewhat accelerated aging of spirits. The system of the
present invention has many advantages over ultrasound treatment.
For instance, ultrasound aging systems can work acceptably well on
a small or laboratory scale, but such systems are difficult to
scale up and replicate laboratory results in commercial volumes.
The use of controlled cavitation in the present invention provides
similar or near identical results at nearly any commercial volume.
Cavitation events in the controlled cavitation device typically
produce intense shock waves in a liquid being treated that expose
the molecules in the liquid to far higher energies than are
possible with ultrasound, This can result in more rapid flavor
intensification and more rapid conversion of undesirable alcohols
in the mixture into esters and other less objectionable
compounds.
[0022] Gasses such as oxygen also may be added to the mix to
accelerate the oxidation and conversion of undesirable alcohols and
other chemicals. Also ultrasound liquor aging devices rely on small
clearances and mechanical shear to enhance the effects of the
ultrasound aging process. These requirements are not conducive to
particulates like wood chips being added to the liquor mix. A
controlled cavitation device of the present invention can easily
accommodate wood chips and other solids because of its inherent low
shear and relatively large internal clearances.
[0023] The same principles used to extract flavor and color from
charred wood chips in liquor aging can be used to extract sugars,
starches, oils, and other substances from woods and other
lignocellulosic material in applications such as ethanol and biogas
production. Substances such as waste food or algae can experience
component extraction in a similar way. In such processes, the
intense pressure fluctuations caused by the cavitation induced
shock waves force a solvent into a solid to remove entrapped
components such as sugars and starches. These intense high energy
shock waves are also capable of causing lysis of pressurized bodies
like cells. Examples of this include treatment of algae or bacteria
with the cavitation induced lysis allowing for oil and carbohydrate
extraction or pasteurization. Cavitation can also reverse
hornification where the pore structure of a lignocellulosic
material dries and bonds to itself limiting future use of its
natural capillary system. The pressure fluctuations can force
solvent into this structure and reopen it to near its original
condition prior to drying.
[0024] FIG. 1 illustrates in simplified schematic form a controlled
cavitation reactor suitable for use in carrying out the methodology
of the present invention. Such a reactor is described in detail in
the incorporated references, and so will be describe only generally
here. The reactor 11 comprises a reservoir tank 12 for holding a
liquid alcoholic beverage during the aging process. Liquid is drawn
from the reservoir tank 12 through conduit 13 by a pump 14 and
delivered through a flow meter 16 and conduit 17 to a controlled
cavitation reactor 18. The controlled cavitation reactor 18
generally comprises a cylindrical housing having an internally
mounted cylindrical rotor. A space is defined between the outer
peripheral surface of the rotor and the inner peripheral surface of
the housing and this space is referred to as the cavitation zone.
Cavitation-inducing structures such as radial bores are formed in
or one the outer peripheral surface of the rotor. The rotor is
rotated within the housing by an electric motor 19.
[0025] The liquid is pumped through the cavitation reactor within
which it flows through the cavitation zone. As the rotor is rotated
at a high rate, continuous cavitation events are induced in the
liquid within the radial bores. This, in turn, produces highly
energetic shock waves caused by continuously collapsing cavitation
bubbles to propagate through the liquid in the cavitation zone.
These shock waves induce the reactions described above within the
alcoholic beverage, thereby duplicating traditional aging
processes, but doing so in minutes rather than years. Charred wood
chips may be mixed with the liquid, particularly when aging
distilled spirits, to infuse the white spirits with color and
flavor similar to that, resulting from years of aging in charred
barrels. After treatment in the reactor 18, the liquid flows
through conduit 21 and may flow through a heat exchanger 22 to
remove unwanted heat induced by the energy of cavitation. The
cooled liquid then flows through conduit 23 and inlet 26 back to
the reservoir tank 12. The liquid and entrained chips and/or other
flavorings if desired may be circulated through the cavitation
reactor as many times as desired to obtain, a desired level of
aging, flavor, and aroma. Then, it can be extracted as an aged and
flavored alcoholic beverage, as indicated by arrow 28.
[0026] FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate hybrid systems for aging distilled
spirits that include artificial aging with high energy cavitation
in conjunction with traditional aging. Of course, such a hybrid
system can be used in the aging of beer and wine in the same way.
In FIG. 2, distilled spirits are partially aged in a traditional
manner such as being left in a charred oak barrel 27 for a
specified period of time. This time preferably is far less than the
years required for full barrel aging and results in partial aging,
partial filtration and partial infusion of the desired flavors of
the charred oak into the distilled spirits, The partially aged
spirits can then be subjected to the cavitation induced aging in
the apparatus described above for one or more cycles. Charred wood
chips and/or other flavorings can be introduced if desired to
obtain additional flavoring, coloring, and filtration during the
process. The result is a fully aged liquor having characteristics
unique to the charred oak barrel in which it was partially aged,
but also having the full robust aging that traditionally only
results from years of residence in oak barrels. Again, the total
time to obtain the fully aged liquor product is a fraction of the
time required to obtain the same benefits with traditional
aging.
[0027] FIG. 3 illustrates an, alternate hybrid process for
obtaining similar results. Here, freshly distilled spirits are
delivered from the distiller directly to a controlled cavitation
device 11 according to the invention. As described above, the
spirits are circulated through the controlled cavitation reactor or
cavitator for a predetermined number of cycles, with or without the
addition of charred wood chips and other flavoring and filtering
media. After treatment for minutes or hours in the cavitation
reactor, the distilled spirits are partially aged as if they had
resided in traditional charred oak barrels for months or even
years. The partially aged spirits may then be delivered to
traditional charred oak barrels or other aging vessels for further
aging in a more traditional manner. This may be desired, for
instance, to infuse the resulting liquor with unique flavors from
the barrel or for other reasons, After traditional aging in the
barrel for a time far less than the several years usually required,
the liquor is fully aged and virtually indistinguishable from its
more venerable predecessors. Again, the total time to obtain the
desirable flavor and character of liquor aged for years is reduced
to a fraction of that time using a combination of the methodology
of the present invention and traditional aging techniques.
[0028] The invention has been described herein in terms and within
the context of exemplary embodiments and methodologies considered
by the inventors to represent the best modes of carrying out the
invention. However, the illustrated embodiments are not intended to
and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention.
For example, while aging distilled spirits has been used in some
instances as an example of the use of this invention, the invention
itself is much broader than this. For instance, the methodology of
the invention has been found useful in beer manufacturing, where
pumping beer through a controlled cavitation reactor with hops and
other flavorings can simulate the aging process in a fraction of
the time. Wine can also be aged using the methodology of this
invention. When aging wine, the wine may be pumped through a
controlled cavitation reactor with wood chips and/or other
flavorings. Exposure to shock waves in the cavitation zone
accelerates many of the chemical reactions that naturally occur
slowly with traditional beer and wine aging. Thus, the term
"spirits" as used herein is meant to be construed to encompass beer
and wine as well as distilled spirits. Any desired flavoring can be
included in a stream of spirits, beer, or wine being aged including
those mentioned and, for instance, coffee and chocolate (sometimes
used to flavor beer) an any other flavoring desired. It will be
appreciated by the skilled artisan, therefore, that a wide gamut of
additions, deletions, and modifications, both subtle and gross, may
be made to the example embodiments without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention exemplified by such
embodiments.
* * * * *