啤酒的生产过程主要分为:制麦、糖化、发酵、罐装四个部分。其中在灌装的过程中有一个极为重要的步骤,就是增氧量的控制,一般控制在20ppb以内,成品啤酒瓶颈空气一般控制在0.5mL左右。减少了氧对啤酒质量的影响,提高了成品啤酒的风味稳定性和非生物稳定性。
啤酒灌装生产线激泡装置
高压激泡引起啤酒瓶口喷涌,可以排除残余空气
高压激泡压力对瓶颈空气的影响:灌装后的啤酒在封盖前,高压激泡的目的在于排除瓶颈部分的气体。利用高压水激起酒液泡沫,使其溢出瓶口排出瓶颈部分的气体,是降低瓶颈空气的重要手段。
在采取高压水引沫时,要根据生产的具体情况调节引沫压力、引沫位置,引沫的标准应以在瓶子封盖前、泡沫溢出瓶口1cm—2cm、灌装封盖后的瓶颈部分没有较大的、较粗糙的泡沫且泡沫均匀、细腻为准。如果啤酒在压盖前激泡压力过高,易引起容量不足、激泡压力过低、无法赶走空气的后果。
为了能很好地控制成品啤酒瓶颈中空气的含量,笔者通过对不同激泡压力进行试验,并检测相应的瓶颈空气含量,并保证灌装容量的要求,最终选择最佳的激泡压力。之前控制激泡压力都在1.0Mpa—2.0Mpa之间。
经二次抽真空后,随着激泡压力上升,瓶颈空气含量总体呈下降的趋势。曲线显示,控制1.6MPa激泡压力以下的啤酒,随着激泡压力的加大,瓶颈空气变化较大;但是控制1.6MPa激泡压力以上的啤酒,随在激泡压力的加大,瓶颈空气变化不明显。因此控制1.6Mpa激泡压力是比较理想的,对应成品啤酒的瓶颈空气符合工艺要求。
高压激泡装置的组成及原理:
纯化水 ⇉ 增压泵 ⇉ 调压阀 ⇉ 过滤器 ⇉ 加热器 ⇉ 高压喷嘴
酒机灌装过程:
在正常生产时,酒机以稳定的速度运转,激泡水压力调整至2.0MPa左右,激泡效果能满足工艺要求,并保持较为稳定的液面。如出现设备故障或其他外部因素引起酒机运行速度发生变化,而此时高压激泡压力仍继续保持固定,各工位上的瓶装酒因激泡时间长短不同,会造成溶解氧及液面差别较大。
为解决上述问题,手动频繁调整激泡压力将不能满足工艺要求,唯一的办法就是使激泡压力能随酒机速度变化而变化,此时需要对不同包装线上的激泡装置和现场条件进行了相应的改造。
具体改造方法如下:
激泡装置中使用柱密泵进行增压时,以灌装机最高生产速度来设定激泡压力.在激泡处并联增加一个带电磁阀及节流阀的分支管道,目的在于控制激泡水流量及卸压,达到激泡水压力随酒机速度变化而变化,更换增压泵为叶轮泵,增加一台变频器和一台压力传感器,运行控制信号来自酒机的变频器,使叶轮泵的输出压力在设定范围内随酒机运转速度的变化而变化,以满足工艺要求。
高压喷嘴的重要性:
使用高压激泡装置去解决实际运行中存在问题,其效果明显。高压激泡装置使用高压水柱使瓶内啤酒产生大量气泡溢出瓶口,将瓶颈空气挤出瓶子,避免空气侵入瓶内.减少了酒体溶解氧。
灌酒机速度的变化以及激泡的压力对溶解氧和液位的有一定的影响,喷出来透明的水柱长度决定了激泡的效果,因此,选择好的高压喷嘴显得无比重要。
The beer production process is divided into four main parts: wheat making, saccharification, fermentation, and canning. One of the extremely important steps in the filling process is the control of oxygenation, which is generally controlled within 20 ppb, and the finished beer bottle neck air is generally controlled at about 0.5 mL. This reduces the impact of oxygen on the quality of the beer and improves the flavor stability and abiotic stability of the finished beer.
Beer filling line bubbling device
High-pressure bubbling causes a gush at the bottle neck to remove residual air.
The effect of high-pressure bubble pressure on bottle neck air: After filling beer, the purpose of high-pressure bubble stimulation is to eliminate the gas in the bottle neck part before capping. The use of high-pressure water to stimulate the liquid foam, so that it overflows out of the bottle mouth to discharge the gas in the neck part of the bottle, is an important means of reducing the air in the bottle neck.
When taking high-pressure water to induce foam, according to the specific conditions of production to adjust the pressure of the foam, foam location, the standard of foam should be in the bottle before capping, foam overflow out of the bottle mouth 1cm-2cm, filling and capping the bottle neck part of no larger, rougher foam and foam uniform, fine prevail. If the bubble pressure of beer is too high before capping, it is easy to cause the consequences of insufficient volume, low bubble pressure and inability to drive out the air.
In order to control the content of air in the bottle neck of the finished beer, the author finally chose the best frothing pressure by testing different frothing pressures and detecting the corresponding air content in the bottle neck, and ensuring the filling capacity requirements. The previous control bubble pressure were between 1.0Mpa-2.0Mpa.
After the second evacuation, the overall trend of bottle neck air content decreased with the rise of the surge pressure. The curves show that the bottle neck air changes more with the increase of the bubble pressure for the beer controlled below 1.6 MPa bubble pressure; however, the change of the bottle neck air is not obvious with the increase of the bubble pressure for the beer controlled above 1.6 MPa bubble pressure. Therefore, the control of 1.6 MPa bubble pressure is ideal, and the bottle neck air of the corresponding finished beer meets the process requirements.
Components and principles of the high-pressure bubbling unit.
Purified water ⇉ Booster pump ⇉ Regulator ⇉ Filter ⇉ Heater ⇉ High pressure nozzle
Wine machine filling process.
In normal production, the wine machine runs at a stable speed, and the pressure of the exciting bubble water is adjusted to about 2.0MPa, and the exciting bubble effect can meet the process requirements and maintain a more stable liquid level. If there is equipment failure or other external factors that cause changes in the running speed of the wine machine, while the high-pressure bubble pressure continues to remain fixed, the bottles of wine at each station will cause large differences in dissolved oxygen and liquid level due to the different lengths of bubble time.
In order to solve the above problems, manual and frequent adjustment of the bubble pressure will not meet the process requirements, the only way is to make the bubble pressure can change with the wine machine speed, at this time the need for different packaging line bubble device and site conditions for the corresponding transformation.
Specific transformation methods are as follows.
Excitation bubble device in the use of column density pump for pressurization, the highest production speed of the filling machine to set the pressure of the excitation bubble. In parallel with the bubble at the increase of a branch pipeline with solenoid valve and throttle valve, the purpose is to control the bubble water flow and unloading pressure, to achieve the bubble water pressure changes with the speed of the wine machine, replace the booster pump for the impeller pump, increase a frequency converter and a pressure sensor, operating control signal from the wine machine frequency converter, so that the output pressure of the impeller pump in the set range with the wine machine operating speed changes to meet the process requirements.
Importance of high pressure nozzles.
The use of high-pressure bubbling devices to solve the problems that exist in actual operation is effective. The high-pressure bubbling device uses a high-pressure water column to make the beer inside the bottle produce a large number of bubbles overflowing out of the bottle mouth, pushing the air out of the bottle neck and avoiding air intrusion into the bottle. Dissolved oxygen in the bottle is reduced.
The variation of the speed of the wine filling machine and the pressure of the bubbling has a certain influence on the dissolved oxygen and liquid level, and the length of the transparent water column sprayed out determines the effect of the bubbling, so it is extremely important to choose a good high-pressure nozzle.