A particulate material includes agglomerated diatomaceous earth and a silicone binder. A process for preparing a diatomaceous earth product includes agglomerating at least one natural diatomaceous earth with at least one silicone material, and subjecting the agglomerated diatomaceous earth to at least one heat treatment at a temperature ranging from about 600° C. to about 1,000° C. A filter aid composition includes a diatomaceous earth product including an agglomerated diatomaceous earth and a silicone material. A method of filtering at least one liquid includes passing the at least one liquid through at least one filter membrane including a diatomaceous earth product including agglomerated diatomaceous earth and a silicone material.

A composite filter aid may include diatomaceous earth, natural glass, and a precipitated silica binder, wherein the filter aid has a permeability ranging from 3 to 20 darcys. A composite filter aid may include diatomaceous earth, perlite, and a precipitated silica binder, wherein the filter aid has an alpha density less than 15 lbs/ft.sup.3. A method for making a composite material may include blending diatomaceous earth and perlite, adding alkali silicate to the blended diatomaceous earth and perlite, and precipitating the alkali silicate as a binder to make the composite material. A method for filtering a beverage may include using a composite filter aid and/or composite material.

Methods and devices for use in removing biogenic amines from wine or other liquids are described. The methods and devices use a cation exchange resin and/or molecularly imprinted medium selective for amines to remove the amines from the wine or other liquid at the point of use.

Embodiments described herein relate to methods and systems for dewatering alcoholic solutions via forward osmosis.

A method for accelerating aging of beer in order to enhance one or more flavors that are exhibited by the beer; it includes providing in a recipient beer with one or more materials to impart flavor to the beer during an aging process, the recipient joined to one or more ultrasonic transducers; generating ultrasound that travel into the beer using the one or more ultrasonic transducers in order to disrupt the one or more materials contained in the beer, thereby imbuing the beer with one or more flavors corresponding to the one or more materials; and extracting the flavored beer from the recipient for bottling, whereby the bottled beer is carbonized.

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.

The present invention relates to a separation membrane including an organic polymer resin, in which a volume V1 of fine pores having a pore diameter of 100 nm or more is 0.3 cm.sup.3/g or more and 0.5 cm.sup.3/g or less, a volume V2 of fine pores having a pore diameter of less than 100 nm is 0.02 cm.sup.3/g or more and less than 0.1 cm.sup.3/g, and a ratio V1/V2 of the fine pore volume V1 to the fine pore volume V2 is 3 or more and 60 or less.

Methods and systems are described that produce an ultra-high gravity alcoholic beverage from a high gravity alcoholic beverage stream using an efficient, low waste, combination reverse osmosis and forward osmosis system and an enhanced draw solution. Utilizing a reverse osmosis system prior to using a forward osmosis system in removing water content from a high gravity alcoholic beverage stream significantly reduces a draw solution load when compared to a process that utilizes a forward osmosis system alone or prior to using any other dewatering system. In addition, the enhanced draw solution, comprising at least one of acetaldehyde, amyl acetate, ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate, iso-amyl acetate, iso-amyl alcohol, iso-butanol, n-propanol, pentyl acetate, and phenyl ethyl alcohol, offers an efficient and low-cost alternative to ethanol-based draw solutions.

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.

A method of reducing haze by creating a physically stable alcoholic beverage that has been obtained via filtration and separation processes includes receiving retentate from which water has been removed, from a reverse osmosis filter system having an initial alcoholic precursor to the alcoholic beverage in a feed stream, wherein a concentration of alcohol in the retentate has reached between about 10% and 40% by volume, cooling the retentate to a temperature between about 2 degrees below a freezing point of the retentate and a freezing point of the initial alcoholic precursor to the alcoholic beverage in the feed stream, and subjecting the retentate to a clarification process that removes particles having a size of about 0.4-0.8 microns and larger to produce a clarified retentate. The clarification process includes centrifuging, filtration using a filter, and/or forming a supernate and a precipitate and then decanting the supernate.