Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-05-08 Origin: Site
Since 2018, China's whiskey industry has begun to develop rapidly. In the production process of whiskey, filter tanks are often used for malting and solid-liquid separation of wort. However, the beer industry has another type of wort solid-liquid separation filtration equipment, which is a filter press. So is there a possibility of using a filter press in whiskey saccharification production? Both filter presses and filter tanks are used and mature in beer. Before discussing the possibility of using filter presses in whiskey saccharification production, let's first introduce the difference between beer filter tanks and filter presses for subsequent discussion.
Ⅰ The difference between the two
The structure is different. From the appearance, the filter tank is a pot-type device that forms a filter layer through wheat bran to separate wort and grains. Therefore, in the early stage of filtration, the wort needs to be circulated to achieve clarified wort (see Figure 1).
From the appearance, the filter press is a plate-and-frame device that can directly obtain clarified wort by filtering through a filter membrane or filter cloth (see Figure 2).
Figure 1: Filtration in filter tank
Figure 2: Filter press filtration
The cost investment of a filter tank with the same processing capacity is lower than that of a filter press.
The filter tank needs fewer maintenance points, mainly the rotation and lifting mechanism of the tiller at the bottom; the filter press has more moving parts and more maintenance points. The filter press has more daily production batches. The filter tank can produce 12 batches per day; Ziemann (a subsidiary of CIMC Alcohol Technology) TCM filter press can produce up to 14 batches. With the same processing capacity, the production capacity can be increased by 16.7% using a filter press. The filter press has a high recovery rate. In theory, it is about 1.5% higher than the filter tank. If the annual leaching rate of a 250,000-ton factory increases by 1%, it will save more than 1 million yuan. The filter press uses filter cloth to separate solids and liquids, and does not rely on the slag layer formed by wheat bran for filtration, so the ratio of beer raw materials can be more flexible.
Based on the above differences, it is more directional to discuss the possibility of using filter presses in whiskey saccharification production. There is a big difference between whiskey and beer production. Beer cares a lot about the flavor brought by the wort, while the flavor in whiskey wort has little effect on the final product. Whiskey manufacturers hope to maximize the extraction of malt extract. As for the bitter taste of wort caused by over-extraction, it is not much reflected in the flavor of the final product. Therefore, in terms of commercial value or return on investment, the possibility of using filter presses in whiskey production is a technological innovation direction worth exploring. Filter presses have been widely used in the beer industry to improve efficiency, but their application in whiskey saccharification is still in the exploratory stage.
Ⅱ Differences in actual system solutions
If the filter press is applied to the whiskey saccharification system, what difference will there be in the actual solution? The common whiskey saccharification system on the market (see Figure 3) contains a mixing auger, a filter tank, a malt cold plate changer, etc. Different from the solution with a filter tank, the whiskey saccharification solution with a filter press requires a saccharification pot (see Figure 4) for early saccharification.
After adding a saccharification pot, the overall production time can be shortened. The production time of the whiskey filter tank is about 6 hours per batch. If a saccharification pot plus a filter press is used, the production time can be shortened to less than 2 hours. If the amount of material in a single batch is the same, then the filter tank takes 24 hours, and the filter press solution only takes 10 hours.
Figure 3: Whisky system with lauter tun
Figure 4: Whisky system with filter press
The following is an investment estimate based on the filter tank and filter press scheme for a large whisky factory with an annual output of 10MPAL. Assuming continuous production, 400 tons of wort are produced every day. If it is a filter tank and traditional technology is used, three 6.5M filter tank systems or a 12M large filter tank system are required. However, if it is a filter press, only one 35-ton system is needed.
The investment in three whisky production lines and one 35-ton filter press line is obviously lower for the 35-ton filter press. Even the investment costs of the 12M filter tank system and the 35-ton filter press are very similar.
According to beer production experience, if a filter press is used, the wort leaching rate will increase by 1.5%. It was also stated earlier that whisky mainly depends on the leaching rate, and the precipitation of harmful substances actually has little effect on the flavor. Improving the leaching rate is more attractive to whisky manufacturers.
There are already large beer producers in China that directly add distillation equipment to produce whisky on the basis of existing saccharification equipment. At the same time, CIMC Alcohol Technology also has actual application cases abroad. This further illustrates that the wort produced by the beer saccharification system can be used for whiskey fermentation and distillation, and also indirectly proves that the wort produced by the filter press can meet the needs of whiskey fermentation and distillation.(Cr. BREW&BEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY EQUIPMENT)
