US 9,476,020 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for the recovery of PVPP after contact with a yeast fermented beverage by sedimentation separation

AssigneeHeineken Supply Chain B.V.

InventorsTom Reinoud Noordman, Marcel Van Der Noordt, Anneke Richter

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Abstract

A method of preparing a yeast fermented beverage is provided, which method comprises (a) fermenting wort with a biologically active yeast to produce a fermented liquid; (b) combining the fermented liquid with polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) particles to bind at least a fraction of the polyphenols and/or proteins contained in the fermented liquid; (c) removing a slurry containing the PVPP particles and yeast from the fermented liquid; (d) separating said slurry into a yeast-enriched fraction and a PVPP-enriched fraction a technique selected from flotation separation, settling separation and separation using a hydrocyclone; (e) regenerating the PVPP particles before, during and/or after the separation by desorbing polyphenols and/or protein from said PVPP-particles; and (f) recirculating the regenerated PVPP particles to step (b). The method can be operated with single use PVPP as well as regenerable PVPP and does not require sophisticated filter hardware for regenerating the PVPP.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method of regenerating polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) particles in preparing a yeast fermented beverage, comprising:

(a) fermenting wort with a biologically active yeast to produce a fermented liquid comprising yeast, alcohol, polyphenols and protein;
(b) combining the fermented liquid with polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) particles to bind at least a fraction of the polyphenols and/or the proteins contained in the fermented liquid to the PVPP particles, wherein the yeast in the fermented liquid is at a concentration of at least 5 mg of wet yeast per kg of fermented liquid;
(c) removing a slurry containing the PVPP particles and yeast from the fermented liquid by means of membrane filtration;
(d) separating the slurry into a yeast-enriched fraction and a PVPP-enriched fraction by means of a sedimentation separation technique selected from flotation separation, settling separation and separation using a hydrocyclone;
(e) regenerating the PVPP particles during and/or after the separation (d) by desorbing polyphenols and/or protein from the PVPP-particles and separating the desorbed polyphenols and/or the desorbed protein from the PVPP particles;
and
(f) recirculating the regenerated PVPP particles to step (b).

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/811,223Filed 18 Jul 2011
Priority: EP 1017041922 Jul 2010
Published: US 2013/0183402 A118 Jul 2013
Granted: 25 Oct 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

C12C 11/11
Fermentation processes for beer: post fermentation treatments, e.g. carbonation, or concentration
B01D 15/00
Separating processes involving the treatment of liquids with solid sorbents
B01D 41/02
Regeneration of the filtering material or filter elements outside the filter for liquid or gaseous fluids: of loose filtering material
B01J 20/261
Synthetic macromolecular compounds: obtained by reactions only involving carbon to carbon unsaturated bonds