US 2026/0258329 A1Published application

An apparatus for critically controlled maturation of spirit and a method thereof

AssigneeUnited Spirits Limited

InventorsNarendra Manohar RAUT, Nagendra SATHYANARAYANA, Suresh Nama SUBBARAJU, Dilip Kumar SENGUPTA

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Abstract

The invention discloses an apparatus for controlled maturation of spirit. The apparatus contains a reaction vessel (100) designed to Critically Control Maturation of Spirits (CCMS) to attain consistent quality of the matured spirit irrespective of the geographical location of the maturation site. The temperature, pressure, oxygen and chemical reactions are maintained to achieve the consistent quality of the spirit. The process (200) of maturation of the spirit under controlled conditions. The process (200) mainly comprises reduction of harshness by removal of sulphur compounds, addition of wood chips to impart desired flavour, transformation of wood congeners by temperature and pressure conditions, addition of activated carbon to remove the sharp edges and to obtain a well-rounded matured spirit. The process (200) imparts improved sensory profile to the cask matured spirit.

Claims7

Dependent claims

An apparatus for maturation of a spirit with critically controlled steps and the reaction parameters to improve the quality of the spirit, the apparatus comprises a reaction vessel (100) comprising:

a. a spirit inlet (101) placed at the top portion of the reaction vessel (100), through which the distilled spirit is introduced into the reaction vessel (100) for maturation;
b. a water inlet (102) to introduce water into the reaction vessel (100);
c. a hot water jacket (103) to maintain and temperature of the reaction vessel (100);
d. a water outlet (104) to drain water out of the reaction vessel (100);
e. a glass wool (105) insulating the hot water jacket (103) to prevent any loss of heat through the walls of jacket;
f. at least two impellers (106a, 106b) for axial stirring the spirit and are operated by a top mounted motor controlled by variable frequency drive (107);
g. a wood chip cage (108) is a J shaped cage to hold the wood chips and to enable the introduction of the wood chips through the wood chip inlet (110) placed at the roof of the reaction vessel (100);
h. an activated carbon cage (109) is a J shaped cage to hold the activated carbon and to enable the introduction of activated carbon through the activated carbon inlet (111);
i. a wood chip outlet (112) placed at the side wall of the reaction vessel (100) to remove insoluble wood chips through gravity;
j. an activated carbon outlet (113) placed at the side wall of the reaction vessel (100 to remove insoluble activated carbon through gravity;
k. an air displacement valve placed at the top portion of the reaction vessel (100) to purge any trapped air displaced by oxygen gas during the creation of an oxygen-rich gas environment and pressure inside the reaction vessel (100);
l. an oxygen gas inlet (115) to allow the introduction of the dissolved oxygen into the distilled spirit and the concentration of the dissolved oxygen is measured using a dissolved oxygen meter (116);
m. a pressure/vacuum release valve (117) to expel any displaced air or gas from the reaction vessel (100);
n. a pressure gauge (118) placed at the top portion of the reaction vessel (100) to monitor the pressure in the reaction vessel (100);
o. a temperature sensor (119) placed at the top portion of the reaction vessel (100) to monitor the temperature in the reaction vessel (100);
and
p. a spirit outlet (120) placed at the bottom potion of the reaction vessel (100) to allow the collection of the matured spirit from the reaction vessel (100).

14 more elements

A process for maturation of spirit using the apparatus, the process (200) comprising the steps of:

a. reduction of harshness of the spirit by maintaining the critical reaction conditions of the reaction vessel (201);
wherein the reduction of harshness is achieved by:
i. introducing an oxygen-containing gas into the reaction vessel and maintaining a required pressure (201a);
ii. slowly heating the reaction vessel with continuous stirring to elevate the temperature in 3 to 5 hours to the required level between 30° C. to 50° C. preferably 38.0±1.0° C. (201b);
and
iii. maintaining the desired temperature and pressure of oxygen gas with occasional stirring for a duration of 7 to 28 days and preferably 10 days depending on the quality of the spirit (201c);
b. adding the wood chips to enhance the flavor of new make spirit (202) and is achieved by:
i. adding a mixture of wood chips 0.1 to 1.0% w/v preferably 0.7% w/v of wood to the reaction mixture (202a);
ii. repeating the steps (201a) and (201b) to maintain if the reaction vessel remains sealed or bring the beverage and wood chips mixture back if the reaction vessel is opened to add the wood to the specified conditions of temperature and pressure (202b);
and
iii. occasional stirring for 50 to 100 days and preferably for 75 days to maintain the temperature and pressure of oxygen gas (202c);
c. adding activated carbon to reduce the sharp edges and to obtain a well-rounded matured spirit and is achieved by the steps of:
i. adding coconut shell based granular activated carbon at a concentration in a range between 0.30 to 0.70% w/v preferably at 0.50±0.05 % w/v and preferably after the reaction vessel is depressurized (203a);
ii. slowly cooling the reaction vessel with stirring to reduce the temperature, to ambient or to 30° C., whichever is higher and at atmospheric pressure (203b);
iii. continuing the sturing of spirit slowly with a constant speed of approximately 50 rpm for 10 to 30 hours (203c);
and
iv. filtering the spirit using 100-micron bag filters to obtain a well-rounded matured spirit (203d).
wherein the process results in the matured spirit with consistent quality irrespective of the geography of the maturation site.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.