Method for Making a Fermented Beverage Comprising Hop Bine Leaves or Hop Bine Stems

Abstract

A method of making a fermented beverage, in particular a cereal-based fermented beverage, the method comprising the steps of: Preparing a wort and boiling said wort, the boiled wort comprising a liquid fraction and a solids fraction; Separating the liquid fraction from the solids fraction; Fermenting the liquid fraction; Maturing the fermented liquid fraction to obtain the fermented beverage wherein hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are added to the wort and maintained in contact with the liquid fraction of the wort for a period of at least 20 minutes at a temperature of ranging between 70-100 C.

Claims

1. A method of making a fermented beverage, in particular a cereal-based fermented beverage, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a wort and boiling said wort, the boiled wort comprising a liquid fraction and a solids fraction; separating the liquid fraction from the solids fraction; fermenting the liquid fraction; and maturing the fermented liquid fraction to obtain the fermented beverage characterized in that hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are added to the wort and maintained in contact with the liquid fraction of the wort for a period of at least 20 minutes at a temperature of ranging between 70-100 C.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are dosed in the wort in a range of 10 to 1000 g hop leave solids per hectolitre wort.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are kilned to reduce the water content to a range between 5 and 20%.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the kilned hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are milled or ground to particles with a maximal dimension of 0.1 to 10 mm.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are collected from hop plant varieties from the group chosen from Southern Passion, Southern Promise, Southern Star, African Queen (J17) and admixtures thereof.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising dry hopping of the liquid fraction during or after fermentation.

7. The method according to claim 1, the wort being prepared starting from malted barley and, optionally one or more adjuncts.

8. A fermented beverage comprising thiol-conjugated cysteine and thiol-conjugated -glutamylcysteine, the ratio of thiol-conjugated cysteine/thiol-conjugated -glutamylcysteine being comprised in a range of 4 to 1.

9. The beverage according to claim 8, comprising cysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol and -glutamylcysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol in a ratio comprised in a range of 4 to 1.

10. The beverage according to claim 8, comprising -glutamylcysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol in a concentration of at least 30 ppb.

11. The beverage according to any of claim 8, comprising less than 100 ppb of hop oils, the hop oils calculated as a sum of the concentrations of linalool, a-humulene, geraniol and myrcene.

12. The beverage according to claim 8 being a cereal-based fermented beverage.

13. The beverage according to claim 8 having an alcohol content ranging between 1 and 20% ABV.

14. The method according to claim 3, wherein the range for the water content is between 8-12%.

15. The method according to claim 4, wherein the maximal dimension is from 5-10 mm.

16. The beverage according to claim 8, wherein the ratio of thiol-conjugated cysteine/thiol-conjugated -glutamylcysteineis is in a range of 2.5 to 1.

17. The beverage according to claim 9, wherein the ratio of cysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol and -glutamylcysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol is in a range of 2.5 to 1.

18. The beverage according to claim 10, wherein the concentration is at least 40 ppb.

19. The beverage according to claim 11, comprising less than 40 ppb of the hop oils.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0016] The present invention concerns a beverage, in particular a cereal-based fermented beverage having a flavour profile comprising notes of white wine and ideally lacking harsh vegetative flavour notes. It has been found that a beverage having such flavour profile can be made by (a) preparing a wort and boiling said wort, the boiled wort comprising a liquid fraction and a solids fraction; (b) adding hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems to the wort and maintaining the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems in contact with the liquid fraction of the wort at a temperature of between 70-100 C. for at least 20 minutes, thereby allowing extraction of flavour precursors such as thiols S-conjugates from the hop material into the liquid fraction; (c) separating the liquid fraction from the solid fraction and the hop bine leaves and/or stems; and subsequently (d) fermenting the liquid fraction; prior to (e) maturing the fermented liquid fraction to obtain the fermented beverage.

[0017] By addition of the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems to the wort, extraction of the flavour precursors such as thiols S-conjugates from the hop material into the liquid fraction is done in the absence of ethanol.

[0018] To facilitate extraction and to facilitate maintaining the hop bine leave and/or stems in suspension during extraction, the hop material is grinded or milled to particles having a maximal dimension of 0.1 to 10 mm, preferably 5 to 10 mm. The load of hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems added to the wort is clearly dependent on the flavour potential of the hop material and on the desired hopping effect. For the present invention the hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems are preferably dosed in the wort in a range 10 to 1000 g of hop leave solids and/or hop stem solids per hectolitre of wort liquid fraction.

[0019] The hop bine leaves and/or stems can be processed immediately after harvesting, yet the hop material can also be dried (kilned) to reduce the water content to a range between 5 and 20 w %, more preferably between 8 and 12 w %.

[0020] Examples of hop plant varieties from which the hop bine leaves and/or stems can be collected are Southern Passion, Southern Promise, Southern Star, African Queen (J17) and admixtures thereof.

[0021] Apart from the addition of the hop bine leaves and/or stems to the wort, further hopping during the beverage production is not excluded, as such dry hopping of the fermented beverage with either hop bine leaves, hop bine stems, hop cones and/or admixtures thereof are considered a good option to further tweak the organoleptic profile of the resulting beverage.

[0022] The wort to which the hop material is added is preferably prepared starting from barley malt and, optionally, one or more adjuncts.

[0023] The beverage (beer) obtained by such method typically comprises cysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (C3MH) and -glutamylcysteine-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (GC3MH) in a ratio comprised in a range of 4 to 1, preferably in a range of 2.5 to 1 and comprises in a concentration of at least 30 ppb, preferably at least 40 ppb.

[0024] Without being bound to any theory, it is believed that the high GC3MH levels in the beverage (beer) result in a more subtle release of 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (3MH) during consumption of the beverage, potentially by enzymatic degradation or microflora in the mouth of the consumer that as such may experience a prolonged and more subtle taste evolution during consumption. Furthermore, as hop bines contain only small amounts or even no hop oils, potential vegetative and typically harsh flavour components lack in the beverage, increasing the pleasant flavour experience for a consumer.

[0025] According to an alternative embodiment, the fermented beverage prepared by the addition of hop bine leaves and/or hop bine stems during the whirlpool or during wort boilkng, can be further dry-hopped with either hop pellets or other hop bine material to increase the concentration of volatile flavour components and flavour precursors in the beverage.

[0026] According to another alternative embodiment, the beverage is a so-called barley wine having an alcohol content of 10% ABV or higher, prepared by a method according to the present invention.

EXAMPLES

[0027] As an example of a process according to the present invention, 4 varieties of hop bine leaves were handpicked (Southern Promise, Southern Star, Southern Passion and African Queen) to a total of 4150 kg (wet weight) of hop bine leaves. The leaves were subsequently kilned (just like regular hops) to achieve a water content of 7-9%. The kilned leaves were milled into particles having a mean size (largest dimension) of 5 to 10 mm resulting in a total of 830 kg hop leave material.

[0028] A wort was prepared starting from approximately 70 w % wheat malt and 30 w % of a 50:50 mixture of rice and corn adjuncts by mashing and subsequent filtration. The wort was transferred to a wort kettle, HTU pellet hops were added to the wort in a dosage of 3.2 g alpha acids per hl wort and boiled. After boiling, the wort was transferred to a whirlpool vessel, where under whirlpool conditions 600 g/hl of the hop leave material was added to the wort and maintained in contact with the wort for a period of 20 minutes. After clarification, the wort liquid was transferred to a fermentation tank and pitched with an ale yeast. After fermentation, the beer was dry hopped with Kazbek and Hallertau Blanc hops (50:50 ratio-300 g/hl).

[0029] The final beer was adjusted to have an alcohol content of 6.5% ABV, a bitterness of IBU 20, 5.0 g/I CO2, a pH of 4.3 and a hazy unfiltered visual character. The beverage comprised 50 ppb of GC3MH and a C3MH/GC3MH ratio of approximately 2.3. A taste panel described the beer as passion fruit, grapefruit, lemon, orange, mandarin, ripe/tropical fruity notes and white wine notes.

[0030] In a second trial, the same wort was fermented with an lager type of yeast and adjusted to the same product specifications in terms of ABV, IBU and CO2 content. In this case a taste panel described the beer as tangy, light phenolic, citrusy with typical Riesling notes.

[0031] In a third example a wort was prepared starting from approximately 10 w % wheat malt and 50 w % pale malt and 40% specialty malts by mashing and subsequent filtration. The wort was transferred to a wort kettle, HTU pellet hops were added to the wort in a dosage of 3.2 g alpha acids per hl wort and boiled. After boiling, the wort was transferred to a whirlpool vessel, where under whirlpool conditions 400 g/hl of the hop leave material was added to the wort and maintained in contact with the wort for a period of 20 minutes. After clarification, the wort liquid was transferred to a fermentation tank and pitched with an ale yeast. The fermented beverage was adjusted to an ABV of 10% and allowed to cold-age for 3 weeks. The final beverage was assessed as more sessionable than a similar control brew without hop bine addition.