Patent Application
20050281911
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the wine making field and more precisely to a self macerating-fermenting vessel.
Red wine is typically made by crushing dark-skinned grapes and extracting color and flavor components from the grape skins and pulp by allowing the crushed grapes, including their juice, to sit for a period of time. This extraction time is followed by a fermentation stage where yeast converts sugar in the grape juice to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The fermentation can also facilitate in extracting flavor and color from the skins. This process is often referred to as “maceration”. The wine or partially fermented grape juice (“must”) is typically pressed from the skins, stems, and other large solids, and transferred to a secondary vessel where further processing occurs.
During the extraction period the large solids typically float to the surface of the crushed grapes to form a “cap”. This cap can be relatively thick and portions can partially dry out, which diminishes extraction. If fermentation is occurring, the carbon dioxide formed by the yeast can also carry solids to the surface because the gas bubbles nucleate on the solids and carry them to the top of the liquid. Heat is also generated during fermentation and the drier portion of the cap can overheat, generating undesirable flavor components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many techniques have been developed to keep the cap moist to improve the extraction of flavor and color. The “grape stomp”, for example, is directed at submerging the cap into the must, rather than crushing fresh grapes, as is often thought. Other manual methods exist, such as large plungers that the winemaker can use to push portions of the cap into the must. Many of these methods can be tedious and imprecise. The imprecision can lead to a lack of process control that can affect the quality of the wine produced. While other methods have been developed to assist in the extraction and fermentation processes of red wine making, these technologies do not over come the know drawbacks.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a self macerating-fermenting vessel for automatically managing the motion of the cap improving the solid-juice contact.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a self macerating-fermenting vessel for improving the organolepctic characteristics of the resulting wine.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a self macerating-fermenting vessel for improving efficiency in the maceration process of the must in order to provide a better enological quality in the resulting wine.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a self macerating-fermenting vessel comprising a cylindrical fermentation tank having a plurality of inner guides defining pathways for vertical movement of at least one grid connected to a rod axially extending into the tank and vertically actuated by a pneumatic cylinder, wherein the grid has an outer diameter and the tank has an inner diameter, with the outer diameter of said grid being slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the fermentation tank.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the following description.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become clear from the following detailed description, given with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
With reference to the drawings a self macerating-fermenting vessel is generally indicated 1. The vessel 1 comprises a cylindrical fermentation tank 2 having a plurality of inner guides 3 defining pathways for vertical movement of at least an upper grid 4 connected to a rod 5 axially extending into the tank 2 and vertically actuated by a pneumatic cylinder 6. The inner guides 3 define a sinusoidal pathway for generating the rotation of the upper grid 4 while moving vertically.
The upper grid 4 has an outer diameter and the tank 2 has an inner diameter, with the outer diameter of said grid being slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the fermentation tank. The upper grid comprises a peripheral rim 14 made of Teflon®. This rim 14 works as a seal between the perimeter of the upper grid 4 and the inner wall of the tank 2, forcing the cap and the liquid to only pass through the upper grid 4.
As it can be seen from
Still referring to
The base grid 7 can be coupled to the upper grid by means of a chain 8, that is, both base grid 7 and upper grid 4, will move in the same rotating motion by means of the helical guides 3 while the cylinder 6 is actuated. This chain 8 can also be used as an agitating mean which are a plurality of rods 9 projecting downwardly from said upper grid 4. The agitating means attached from bottom end of said rods 9, can be any agitating mean such as flapper 10, chains 8, or a combination thereof. The agitating means are provided to improve the action of mixing the cap with the liquid in order to obtain a better wine.
Referring now to
Making reference to
The use of a modified cylinder as the one mentioned above allows the use of the helical motion upper grid in any fermentation tank, and by no means the inner wall of said tank must be modified to include helical guides, as the one illustrated in
During the maceration-fermentation process the cylinder 6 is actuated moving the upper grid 4 up and down guided by the helical inner guides 3. As mentioned before, the helical guides 3 generates the rotation of the upper grid 4 agitating and mixing the cap with the liquid improving the maceration-fermentation process. While its not shown, the tank 2 includes a outer control visor to oversee the process of agitation trough the complete cycle of the maceration-fermentation process. The motion inside the tank is extremely smooth and runs along the total height of the tank maintaining the contact between the liquid and the cap during the whole process.
Basically, the use of the vessel can be described in very few steps. Firstly, the crushing grapes into must should be done in order to place the must into the fermentation tank. Afterwards (according to the kind of grape) the must has to be allowed to ferment while actuating the pneumatic cylinder moving the grid up and down along the helical guides causing the grid to rotate; generating a vertical helical motion inside the tank mixing and agitating the cap with the liquid and generating a slight pressure within the tank using the base grid to speed up the extraction process of the wine.
While the invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments, other embodiments, modifications, or adaptations may become apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the above embodiments are exemplary and the invention is to be determined according to the following claims.
