US 2024/0352386 A1Published application

Method of preparing alcohol-free beer

OwnerTom Daniël Elink SCHUURMAN, Ikechukwu Victor OFODUinventors

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Abstract

The invention provides a method of producing an alcohol-free beer, said method comprising: providing a vessel containing wort; inoculating the wort with yeast and allowing the yeast to form a settled layer on the bottom of the vessel or a floating layer below the surface of the wort; fermenting the inoculated wort at a temperature of −3 to 5° C. for a period of at least 8 hours to produce a fermented wort; separating the fermented wort from the yeast to produce alcohol-free beer; wherein: one or more pitchings of additional yeast into the inoculated wort are applied during the fermentation; or one or more disruptions of the layer of yeast are applied during the fermentation; or at the beginning of the fermentation the wort is inoculated with at least 3×106 yeast cells per mL of wort. The present method offers the advantage that it yields an alcohol-free beer in which undesirable ‘worty’ flavour notes are substantially reduced.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method of producing an alcohol-free beer, the method comprising:

(a) providing a vessel containing at least 10 hL of wort having a gravity of 5 to 25° P;
(b) inoculating the wort with at least 105 cells/mL of yeast and allowing the yeast to form a settled layer on the bottom of the vessel or a floating layer below the surface of the wort;
(c) fermenting the wort at a temperature of −3 to 5° C. for a period of at least 8 hours to produce a fermented wort;
(d) separating the fermented wort from the yeast to produce alcohol-free beer;
wherein:
(i) one or more pitchings of additional yeast into the inoculated wort are applied during the fermentation, each of the one or more pitchings providing a dosage of 105 to 5×106 yeast cells per mL of wort, and at least one of the one or more pitchings being applied at least 1 hour after the inoculation;
or
(ii) one or more disruptions of the layer of yeast are applied during the fermentation, at least one of the one or more disruptions being applied at least 1 hour after the inoculation or continuing until at least 1 hour after the inoculation;
or
(iii) at the beginning of the fermentation the wort is inoculated with at least 3×106 yeast cells per mL of wort;
and
wherein the method does not comprise addition of Strecker aldehydes selected from 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal and methional.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.