Method and apparatus for producing beer wort

A method of separating mash into draff and clarified beer wort in a cylindrical upright vessel having an upper portion and a lower portion conically converging toward an apertured support forming the bottom of the vessel, comprising the steps of positioning a filter including a fibrous cellulose sliver layer on the apertured support;

• introducing a mash stream into the vessel near the upper portion tangentially against an inner circumferential side of the vessel so that solid components in the mash are forced against the side of the vessel due to centrifugal force;
• allowing the solids to settle and become deposited as a cake on the filter;
• filling the vessel to a predetermined level to provide above the cake a beer wort composed of two fractions, one of which is clear upper layer and the other of which is a lower layer containing suspended solids and being located above and proximal to the cake;
• applying suction to the apertured bottom of the vessel to draw the lower layer containing suspended solids downwardly through the cake to thereby intercept the suspended solids in the cake and accumulate clear wort below the filter until all of the lower layer is removed from the vessel;
• and withdrawing the upper clear layer in the vessel out of the same upwardly from above the cake.