Improvements in or relating to the preservation of hops, hop extract, and fractions of hops

摘要

Hops, hop extracts and fractions of hops such as lupulin, bracts and bracteoles, and stalks and strigs, are preserved by thoroughly mixing them with sugar, the moisture content being adjusted, if necessary, to render the mixture cohesive, and compressing the mixture under high pressure e.g. at least 5,000 lbs. per square inch, into a block. Whole, shredded or ground hops or fractions of hops, preferably partially dried, are suitable. Glycerol and a brewery antioxidant may be added to the mixture prior to compression. The following sugars are mentioned: malt extract and brewery sugars (preferred), cane sugar, refined crystals, candy sugar, sugar candy, brown and yellow sugar, maltose, invert sugar, glucose, fructose and corn syrup. Where water is employed in the mixture, the water preferably has a pH value in the range 7.0 to 7.4. In a preferred procedure, the hops etc. are treated with water at an elevated temperature, the water is then separated from the hops and boiled with sugar to form a syrup, the syrup is cooled and then mixed with the hops to produce a cohesive mixture, and the hop-syrup mixture of moisture content 15-25% by weight is finely divided and compressed under high pressure into a block. The preservation of lupulin involves extracting the lupulin with boiling water and subsequently mixing for at least 10 minutes, boiling the extractant pressed from the lupulin with 2-3 times its own weight of sugar for between 10 and 40 minutes to produce a syrup boiling at a temperature within the range 230-245 DEG F., cooling the syrup to a temperature of 100-110 DEG F., mixing the lupulin with the syrup to form a cohesive mixture and compressing the mixture under high pressure into a block. A similar procedure is applied to the preservation of bracts and bracteoles. The procedure for stalks and strigs involves a preliminary grinding to a particle size of the order of 50 to 100 microns and soaking the ground strigs in cold water for 1-3 hours. Many detailed examples are given.