Hop extract
A process of preparing a liquid hop extract suspension or a liquid hop extract is disclosed, comprising: (a) providing a hop material selected from hops, dried hops, hop pellets and combinations thereof; (b) combining 100 parts by weight of aqueous liquid with 1-20 parts by weight of the hop material to produce a hop suspension containing at least 95 wt. % water; (c) maintaining the hop suspension at a temperature of 8-40° C. for at least 1 hour to produce a liquid hop extract suspension; and (d) subjecting the liquid hop extract suspension to solid-liquid separation to produce a liquid hop extract and hop residue. A method of producing a packaged carbonated low alcohol beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV with the liquid hop extract suspension or the liquid hop extract is also disclosed.
1 . A method of producing a packaged carbonated beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.0% alcohol by volume (ABV), the method comprising:
(a) providing a beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV;
(b) combining the beer with a liquid hop extract suspension or a liquid hop extract to produce a zesty beer;
(c) carbonating the zesty beer to produce a carbonated beer having a dissolved carbon dioxide content of at least 2 g/L; and
(d) packaging the carbonated beer in a sealed container;
wherein the liquid hop extract suspension or a liquid hop extract has an ethanol content of not more than 1 vol. % and comprises:
(i) 3-300 mg/L of alpha-acids selected from humulone, cohumulone, adhumulone, prehumulone, posthumulone and combinations thereof;
(ii) 0.5-20 mg/L of iso-alpha acids selected from isohumulone, isocohumulone, isoadhumulone and combinations thereof;
(iii) 500-20,000 ug/L of myrcene;
(iv) 100-4,000 ug/L of beta-linalool;
(v) 50-2,000 ug/L of geraniol;
(vi) 10-400 ug/L of humulene; and
(vii) 12-500 ug/L of limonene.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising filtering the beer after addition of the liquid hop extract suspension and before the packaging.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein 100 parts of the beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV are combined with 10 to 60 parts by weight of the liquid hop extract.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV is produced by de-alcoholising an alcoholic beer having an alcohol content of 1.8-12% ABV.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV is produced by a method comprising:
(i) mashing a mixture of grain and water to produce a mash;
(ii) separating the mash in wort and spent grain;
(iii) boiling the wort; and
(iv) fermenting the boiled wort with live yeast to produce a beer.
6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the boiled wort is fermented with live yeast to produce an alcoholic beer having an alcohol content of 1.8-12% ABV and wherein the alcoholic beer is de-alcoholised to produce the low alcohol beer having an alcohol content of 0-1.5% ABV.