Diseño y construcción de un equipo de maceración como parte de una línea de proceso para la elaboración de cerveza artesanal

Abstract

The design and construction of a Maceration equipment as part of a craft beer production process line made it possible to produce hopped must; the equipment has the possibility of carrying out complementary processes such as: washing, cooking and cooling; allowing to obtain a product suitable for entering the fermentation stage, due to obtaining the different design variables, obtained experimentally. Together with the different codes, it was possible to build a team that can carry out the maceration process efficiently. The efficiency of maceration depended largely on the type of malt used and its relation to water, since to obtain an optimal must, it will be necessary to have a density of 1,040g/mL. For this purpose, the amount needed to achieve the density was added in the washing process. In the cooking section, hops were added in order to bitterness the must. It was given in three times to the 60min, 30min and 15min of the cooking, the same one that has a duration of 60min, leading to the must at temperatures of 100°C in order to perform the enzymatic inactivation and to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms that can present the must. As the last step for the production of must, cooling was carried out, in order to provide the indicated temperature (23 ° C) for entering the fermenter, with a duration of approximately 3.77 hours. At the end of this process, the various analyzes were carried out that verified compliance with the INEN 2203 standard, where the characterization, such as: organoleptic, physicochemical and microbiological tests complied with the standard. It should be noted that the use of a filter medium in cooking allowed the resulting must to present less turbidity, moistening the efficiency of the process.