STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

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THE NAMES OR PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC

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SEQUENCE LISTING

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention: The invention relates most generally to automatic fermentation tanks, more particularly for making wine, and still more particularly to a stainless steel fermentation tank in which tank entry and must/pomace removal is obviated with a removable novel strainer basket.

Background Discussion: In the most general terms, the process of wine making can be reduced to five broad processes or production steps: (1) grape harvesting, (2) crushing/destemming and pressing, (3) fermentation, (4) clarification, and (5) aging and bottling. Sub-steps comprising variations on these principal steps provide the opportunity for highly customized and personalized production.

After harvest and sorting, grapes are destemmed and crushed. Free run juice may be pulled off for special production or combined with the must for fermentation. In white wine production stems, seed, skins and other solids are quickly separated from the juice to prevent color and tannins from being imparted to the wine. By contrast, juice is left in contact with the skins in red wine production to impart color and tannins to the juice. The “young wine” is a suspension known as the must.

The next phase in production is fermentation. It may be initiated naturally over the course of the first day after crush using airborne wild yeast, or it may be initiated by inoculating the must with cultured yeasts. Fermentation is monitored and discontinued when the sugars are converted into alcohol.

Clarification comes next. This entails removing solids from the must. Thus, dead yeast cells, tannins, and various proteins are removed, and the free run wine is then “racked” (i.e., transferred) into a vessel where it is fined and/or filtered. These processes “clarify” the wine. After clarification, the wine is again racked into a storage tank where it can be aged until bottling. The grape solids remaining in the fermentation tank for red wine fermentation (skins, stems, seeks, pulp, as well as the lees) are usually transferred to a press where remaining liquid, including desirable tannins, are extracted for selective addition to the free run wine.

Stainless steel tanks have been in use in wine production since the 1960s. Jacketed vessels enable the winemaker to control fermentation temperatures, minimize oxidation and bacterial contamination, all while being chemically neutral and remaining entirely unreactive with acid wine juice, thus imparting no flavor characteristics to the wine.

While most stainless steel tanks have closed tops with an access door (typically a manway for larger tanks), some may be left uncovered or selectively covered with a removable and/or a hinged lid. Nearly all stainless tanks employed in wine production include a pitched floor sloping to a drain, along with various fittings and ports for removing or introducing liquids or other substances used in the production process. Access through the top of a fermentation tank is essential in red wine production for either punching down the cap or pumping over the cap using a hose coupled to a lower outlet to a pump-over cart with a sump and filter. The same outlet may be used for racking. These tank structures and features facilitate handling of the liquid throughout the production process.

To date the process of racking has almost invariably involved the transfer of wine from fermentation vessels to secondary fermentation or storage vessels.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention include a stainless steel fermentation basket sized for placement in a stainless steel fermentation tank modified to suspend the fermentation basket within the tank interior. The fermentation basket has a geometry and an external dimension to provide a separation space between the basket wall and the tank wall using an upper circumferential or perimeter rim (an angle) which is disposed over a basket welded to the tank interior.

The fermentation basket further includes lifting tabs provided with connecting structure for coupling to cables, lines or hooks on an overhead crane, lift, or hoist, or a forklift, and it is perforated about its floor (bottom) and side, such that when it is removed from the tank, solids larger than the perforation holes remain in the basket while liquids remain in the tank. This obviates the need for tank entry, water usage and general manpower, with considerable savings in time, cost, and space resulting.

In an embodiment, the fermentation basket includes an upper perforated stainless steel section and a lower slotted cylindrical section having a slotted floor. The upper and lower sections are joined using an annular channel and toggle clamp assembly for moving the basket by forklift. The upper section includes lifting elements for lifting the basket into and out from a tank or vessel using an overhead gantry crane or a forklift fitted with lifting beams or hooks. The upper basket further includes brackets which are placed on brackets on the upper interior wall of the upper section. When suspended in a fermentation tank, the floor of the fermentation basket is slightly elevated above the floor of the tank.

In other embodiments, the fermentation tank is essentially a unitary cylindrical stainless steel container with a closed performated bottom side and an open top and substantially uniform perforations about its cylindrical side. The tank has stainless steel frame structure (hoops) at is top and bottom rims and a vertically oriented bar at a welded seem. It also includes pivoting handles connected to the top rim and forklift bars at its base for use in manipulating the basket with a forklift. The tank is sized for insertion into, and removal from, stainless steel fermentation tanks with a slight spacing between the tank wall and bottom and the fermentation basket wall and bottom.

In its embodiments, the fermentation basket of the present invention simplifies and improves tank fermentation processes. Spoilage from the inadvertent introduction of undesirable microbes can be reduced by effectively eliminating contaminated or dirty must lines, dirty pumps, and by eliminating the use of free run to sluice and the need to introduce and push water through lines from post-fermentation pomace-to-press operations.

The present invention also increases wine production safety by reducing or even eliminating the need to dig out tanks, the need to sluice tanks, and the need to install and remove oak stave devices and staves.

The foregoing advantages include various efficiencies and cost reductions. Less obviously, the need for corresponding labor is also reduced. Not only is there no need to set up and break down pump-over hoses and pumps, but no labor is required for digging out tanks, for sluicing, for installing and removing oak adjunct.

Cost savings are also realized because of the elimination or reduction of several parts and equipment, including access doors on tanks, thermal wells, and D-rings for oak adjunct. Reduced pump motor use also reduces electric power consumption, and chemical costs are reduced because sanitation is not required for must lines, must pumps, transfer hoses, and pumps. Finally, water use is reduced because there is no need to push pomace to the press post-fermentation or to move wine for ullage management.

