Miller Brewing Company

Walter H Fly

Henry Goldstein

Etzer Chicoye

Patrick L Ting

A hopping material useful as a kettle additive in preparing anactinic malt beverages is prepared by a method which includes first forming an aqueous suspension of crude hops, containing alpha acids and cellulosic material and alkali hydroxide and an alkali borohydride. The suspension, which has a pH above about 10.5, is heated to isomerize and reduce the alpha acids initially present in the hops. The pH is lowered to about 2 to convert the reduced iso-alpha acids to their free acid forms so that they are adsorbed on cellulosic hop material in the reaction mixture. The cellulosic material which now contains the free isomerized and reduced alpha acids is isolated and is useful as an anactinic kettle additive which can be stored for prolonged periods with no decomposition. If desired, the cellulosic material thus obtained can be further treated by adjusting the pH with an alkaline solution to obtain an aqueous solution containing only reduced iso-alpha acids, which is useful as an anactinic post-kettle additive, and a cellulosic material, which is useful as an anactinic kettle additive.

Anactinic hopping materials and method of preparation

Hop extracts useful in the preparation of anactinic or light stable malt beverages are obtained by a method which does not use organic solvents. The extracts are obtained by first treating a crude hop extract containing humulone with an aqueous reducing solution, heating the resulting mixture to form reduced isohumulone, acidifying the reaction mixture to form an aqueous phase and an organic phase, and then adjusting the temperature to facilitate the separation of the two phases. The organic phase which is obtained contains the desired isomerized and reduced humulone and it can be used per se as an anactinic brew kettle flavoring additive for beer or ale. In a preferred embodiment, the organic phase is further treated with an amount of an aqueous KOH solution sufficient to neutralize the reduced isohumulone and to form both an aqueous phase and a solid phase. The aqueous phase which contains reduced isohumulone of about 90+% purity can be used as an anactinic post-kettle additive and the solid phase which contains the remainder of the reduced isohumulone and other hop constituents can be used as an anactinic brew kettle additive.

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Las Vegas, NV, United States of America

Walter H Fly