Patent ID: 8563056

Claim:
A method for the production of a yeast fermented beverage, comprising the following consecutive continuous processing steps: a. mashing starch-containing and optionally malted raw materials with aqueous liquid; b. heating the mash and enzymatically hydrolyzing the starch to fermentable sugars; c. removing spent grain from the heated mash to produce a mash extract having a gravity of more than 22° P; d. converting the mash extract into wort by heating said mash extract having a gravity of more than 22° P to at least 75° C. for at least 15 minutes; e. removing organic volatiles from the wort by reducing pressure and/or by stripping the wort with a gas or steam; f. diluting the wort with additional water to a gravity of 10-35° P; g. feeding the diluted wort into a propagation vessel in which it is combined with a recirculated stream of yeast-containing residue and in which oxygen is supplied to initiate yeast growth; h. feeding the wort from the propagation vessel into a sequence of one or more fermentation vessels in which the yeast is kept suspended to produce a fermented wort; i. feeding the fermented wort into one or more separators to remove a yeast-containing residue; j. recirculating part of the yeast-containing residue to the propagation vessel; and k. feeding the remainder of the fermented wort to optional subsequent processing steps; wherein the gravity of the mash extract is maintained at more than 22° P; the gravity of the wort is maintained at more than 22° P until said wort is diluted with additional water; and the gravity of the diluted wort is within the range of 10-35° P; wherein less than 20 wt. % of the fermentable sugars in the mash extract and wort are derived from fermentable sugars added after hydrolysis of the starch contained in the mash; and wherein the water content of the mash extract and the wort is not reduced by means of evaporation or wherein said water content is reduced by evaporation by not more than 10%.