Preparation of alcohol or alcoholic beverages

Claim 1

A method for manufacturing alcohol or an alcoholic beverage, consisting essentially of the sequential steps of: (a) adding water or a mixture of water and stillage to (i) ground maize or (ii) milomaize, or to (III) ground maize or (IV) milomaize in admixture with ground cereal selected from the group consisting of rice, barley, wheat, barnyard millet, common millet and Italian millet, over 30% of which pass through 20 mesh, to obtain a slurry containing from 13 to 40% by weight of solid contents; (b) heating said slurry with malt or an α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation from microorganisms or a mixture thereof at a temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. which is lower than the temperature of maximum viscosity for the slurry and which is higher than the sterilization temperature of undesirable microorganisms therein which can grow during yeast fermentation, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. for from 1 to 30 minutes to cause incomplete liquefaction and partial gelatinization of starch therein; (c) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 25° C. to 34° C.; (d) adding malt or a glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation from a microorganism or a mixture thereof, and an alcohol fermentative yeast to said cooled slurry; (e) fermenting the resulting slurry; and (f) distilling the resulting fermented mash; wherein at least said a-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation is present in (b) or said glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation is present in (d).

Claim 2

A method for manufacturing alcohol or an alcoholic beverage, consisting essentially of the sequential steps of: (a) adding water or a mixture of water and stillage to (i) ground maize or (ii) milomaize, or to (III) ground maize or (IV) milomaize in admixture with ground cereal selected from the group consisting of rice, barley, wheat, barnyard millet, common millet and Italian millet, over 30% of which pass through 20 mesh, to obtain a slurry containing from 13 to 40% by weight of solid contents; (b) heating said slurry with malt or an α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation from microorganisms or a mixture thereof at a temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. which is lower than the temperature of maximum viscosity for the slurry and which is higher than the sterilization temperature of undesirable microorganisms therein which can grow during yeast fermentation, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. for from 1 to 30 minutes to cause incomplete liquefaction and partial gelatinization of starch therein; (c) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 25° C. to 34° C.; (d) adding malt or a glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation from a microorganism or a mixture thereof, and an alcohol fermentative yeast to said cooled slurry; (e) fermenting the resulting slurry; and (f) distilling the resulting fermented mash; wherein at least said a-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation is present in (b) or said glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation is present in (d).

Claim 8

The method for manufacturing alcohol or an alcoholic beverage, consisting essentially of the sequential steps of: (a) adding water or a mixture of water and stillage to (i) ground maize or (ii) milomaize, or to (III) ground maize or (IV) milomaize in admixture with ground cereal selected from the group consisting of rice, barley, wheat, barnyard millet, common millet and Italian millet, over 30% of which pass through 20 mesh, to obtain a slurry containing from 13 to 40% by weight of solid contents; (b) heating said slurry with malt or an α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation from microorganisms or a mixture thereof at a temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. which is lower than the temperature of maximum visocosity for the slurry and which is higher than the sterilization temperature of undersirable microorganisms therein which can grow during yeast fermentation, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. for from 1 to 30 minutes to cause incomplete liquefaction and partial gelatinization of starch therein; (c) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 50° C. to 65° C.; (d) adding thereto malt or a glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation from a microorganism or a mixture thereof, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 50° C. to 65° C. for up to 30 minutes; (e) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 25° C. to 34° C.; (f) adding an alcoholic fermentative yeast to the cooled slurry; (g) fermenting the resulting slurry; and (h) distilling the resulting fermented mash; wherein at least said α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation is present in (b) or said glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation is present in (d).

Claim 9

The method for manufacturing alcohol or an alcoholic beverage, consisting essentially of the sequential steps of: (a) adding water or a mixture of water and stillage to (i) ground maize or (ii) milomaize, or to (III) ground maize or (IV) milomaize in admixture with ground cereal selected from the group consisting of rice, barley, wheat, barnyard millet, common millet and Italian millet, over 30% of which pass through 20 mesh, to obtain a slurry containing from 13 to 40% by weight of solid contents; (b) heating said slurry with malt or an α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation from microorganisms or a mixture thereof at a temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. which is lower than the temperature of maximum visocosity for the slurry and which is higher than the sterilization temperature of undersirable microorganisms therein which can grow during yeast fermentation, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 75° C. to 85° C. for from 1 to 30 minutes to cause incomplete liquefaction and partial gelatinization of starch therein; (c) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 50° C. to 65° C.; (d) adding thereto malt or a glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation from a microorganism or a mixture thereof, and maintaining said slurry at said temperature of from 50° C. to 65° C. for up to 30 minutes; (e) cooling said slurry to a temperature of from 25° C. to 34° C.; (f) adding an alcoholic fermentative yeast to the cooled slurry; (g) fermenting the resulting slurry; and (h) distilling the resulting fermented mash; wherein at least said α-amylase-containing liquefying enzyme preparation is present in (b) or said glucoamylase-containing saccharifying enzyme preparation is present in (d).