| Agitator: A device such as a
stirrer that provides complete mixing and uniform dispersion of all components in a
mixture. Agitators are generally used continuously during the cooking process and
intermittently during fermentation. |
| Alcohol: The family name of a group of organic chemical compounds
composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; includes methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol,
and others. |
| Alloy: Any large number of substances having metallic properties and
consisting of two or more elements; with few exceptions, the components are usually
metallic elements. |
| Atmospheric Pressure: Pressure of the air and atmosphere surrounding
us which changes from day to day. It is equal to 14.7 psia. |
| Auger: A rotating, screw-type device that moves material
through a cylinder. In alcohol production, it is used to transfer grains from storage to
the grinding site to the cooker. |
| Barrel: A liquid measure equal to 42 American
gallons or about 306 pounds; one barrel equals 5.6 cubic feet or .159 cubic meters; for
crude oil, one barrel is about .136 metric tons, .134 long tons, and .150 short tons. |
| Batch Distillation: A process in which the liquid feed
is placed in a single container and the entire volume is heated, in contrast to continuous
distillation in which the liquid is fed continuously through the still. |
| Batch Fermentation: Fermentation conducted from start to finish in a
single vessel. |
| Batch Process: Unit operation where one cycle of feed
stock preparation, cooking, fermentation and distillation is completed before the next
cycle is started. |
| BATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; under the U.S.
Department of Treasury. Responsible for the issuance of permits, both experimental and
commercial, for the production of alcohol. |
| Beer: A general term for all fermented malt beverages
flavored with hops. A low level (6 to 12 percent) alcohol solution derived from the
fermentation of mash by microorganisms. |
| Beer Still: The stripping section of a distillation column for
concentrating ethanol. |
| Boiler: A unit based to heat water to produce steam for
cooking and distillation processes. |
| Brewing: Generically, the entire beer-making process,
but technically only the part of the process during which the beer wort is cooked in a
brew kettle and during which time the hops are added. After brewing the beer is fermented. |
| Bubble-cap Trays: Cross flow trays usually installed in rectifying
columns handling liquids free of suspended solids. The bubble caps consist of circular
cups inverted over small vapor pipes. The vapor from the tray below passes through the
vapor pipes into the caps and curves downward to escape below the rim into the liquid. The
rim of each cap is slotted or serrated to break up the escaping vapor into small bubbles,
thereby increasing the surface area of the vapor as it passes through the liquid. |
| Column: A vertical, cylindrical vessel used to
increase the degree of separation of liquid mixtures by distillation or extraction. |
| Compound: A chemical term denoting a combination of two or more
distinct elements. |
| Concentration: The ratio of mass or volume of solute
present in a solution to the amount of solvent. The quantity of ethyl alcohol (or sugar)
present in a known quantity of water. |
| Condenser: A heat transfer device that reduces a
thermodynamic fluid from its vapor phase to its liquid phase. |
| Continuous Fermentation: A steady state fermentation system that
operates without interruption; each stage of fermentation occurs in a separate section of
the fermenter, and flow rates are set to correspond with required residence times. |
| Cooker: A tank or vessel designed to cook a liquid or
extract or digest solids in suspension; the cooker usually contains a source of heat; and
is fitted with an agitator. |
| Cooking: The process that breaks down the starch
granules in the grain making the starch available for the liquefaction and
saccharification steps. |
| Coproducts: The resulting substances and materials that accompany the
production of ethanol by fermentation process. |
| Cross Flow Trays: Liquid flows across the tray and over a weir to a
downcomer that carries it to the next lower tray. Vapors rise from the bottom of the
column to the top passing through the tray openings and the pools of cross flowing liquid. |
| Denature: The process of adding a substance to
ethyl alcohol to make it unfit for human consumption; the denaturing agent may be gasoline
or other substances specified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. |
| Dewatering: To remove the free water from a solid substance. |
| Distillate: That portion of a liquid which is removed as a vapor and
condensed during a distillation process. |
| Distillation: The process of separating the components
of a mixture by differences in boiling point; a vapor is formed from the liquid by heating
the liquid in a vessel and successively collecting and condensing the vapors into liquids. |
| Ethanol: The alcohol product of fermentation
that is used in alcohol beverages and for industrial purposes; chemical formula blended
with gasoline to make gasohol; also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. |
| Ethyl Alcohol: A flammable organic compound formed
during sugar fermentation. It is also called ethanol, grain alcohol, or simply alcohol. |
| Evaporation: The conversion of a liquid to the vapor state by the
addition of latent heat or vaporization. |
| Fermentation: A
microorganically mediated enzymatic transformation of organic substances, especially
carbohydrates, generally accompanied by the evolution of a gas. The process in which yeast
turns the sugars present on malted grains into alcohol and carbon dioxide. |
| Gasohol (Gasahol): Registered trade names for a
blend of 90% unleaded gasoline with 10% fermentation ethanol. |
| Gasoline: A volatile, flammable liquid obtained from petroleum that
has a boiling range of approximately 29-216 degrees Celsius and is used for fuel for
sparkignition internal combustion engines. |
| Head: The end (enclosure) of a cylindrical shell.
The most commonly used types of heads are hemispherical, ellipsoidal, flanged and dished
(torispherical), conical and flat. |
| Heat Exchanger: A unit that transfers heat from one
liquid (or vapor) to another without mixing the fluids. A condenser is one type of heat
exchanger. |
| Hops: The dried blossom of the female hop plant which is
a climbing herb (Humulus lupulus). |
| Lautering: The process of
straining wort in a lauter tun before it is cooled in the brew kettle. |
| Lauter Tun: The vessel used in brewing between the mash
tun and the brew kettle. It separates the barley husks from the clear liquid wort. The
barley husks themselves help provide a natural filter bed through which the wort is
strained. |
| Mash: A mixture, consisting of
crushed grains and water, that can be fermented to produce ethyl alcohol. |
| Mashing: The process by which barley malt is mixed with
water and cooked to turn soluble starch into fermentable sugar. Other cereal grains, such
as corn and rice, may also be added. After mashing in a mash tun, the mash is filtered
through a lauter tun, where upon it becomes known as wort. |
| Microbrewery: By definition, a microbrewery was
originally considered to be a brewery with a capacity of less than 3000 barrels (2500
hectoliters), but by the end of the 1980s this threshold increased to 15,000 barrels
(12,500 hectoliters) as the demand for microbrewed beer doubled and then tripled. |
| Pot: A hollow vessel more deep than broad. |
| Pressure Vessel: A metal container generally cylindrical or spheroid,
capable of withstanding various loadings. |
| Prohibition: The process by which a government prohibits
its citizens from buying or possessing alcoholic beverages. Specifically, the Prohibition
refers to the period between the effective date of the 18th Amendment to the US
Constitution(16 January 1920) and its repeal by the 21st Amendment. Repeal took effect on
5 December 1933, although it passed Congress in February and the sale of beer was
permitted after 7 April 1933. |
| Rectification: With regard to
distillation, the selective increase of the concentration of the lower volatile component
in a mixture by successive evaporation and condensation. |
| Rectifying Column: The portion of a distillation column
above the feed tray in which rising vapor is enriched by interaction with a countercurrent
falling stream of condensed vapor. |
| Shell: Structural element made to enclose some
space. Most of the shells are generated by the revolution of a plane curve. |
| Shower Type Trays: These trays do not have downcomers. The liquid
level results from the pressure drop caused by the counter-flowing streams. |
| Sieve Trays: Sieve trays are usually cross flow type perforated with
small holes. Sieve trays are sometimes used for feeds that tend to deposit solids or
polimerize in the column. |
| Sight Gauge: A clear calibrated cylinder through which liquid level
can be observed and measured. |
| Still: An apparatus for distilling liquids, particularly
alcohols; it consists of a vessel in which the liquid is vaporized by heat, and a cooling
device in which the vapor is condensed. |
| Stripping Column: The section of the distillation column
in which the alcohol concentration in the starting beer solution is decreased. This
section is below the beer injection point. |
| Stripping Section: The section of a distillation column below the
feed in which the condensate is progressively decreased in the fraction of more volatile
component by stripping. |
| Tank: A vessel of large size to contain liquids. |
| Tunnel Cap Trays: Tunnel cap trays are similar to bubble cap trays
except that they are rectangular. |
| Valve Trays: Valve trays are cross
flow trays with large perforations that are covered with flat plates. The cover plates are
free to move vertically and thus permit the passage of ascending vapors. |
| Vaporization: The process of converting a compound from
a liquid or solid state to the gaseous state. Alcohol is vaporized during the
distillation. |
| Vessel: A container or structural envelope in which material are
processed, treated or stored; for example, pressure vessels, reactor vessels, agitator
vessels, and storage vessels (tanks). |
| Wort: An oatmeal-like substance
consisting of water and mash barley in which soluble starch has been turned into
fermentable sugar during the mashing process. The liquid remaining from a brewing mash
preparation following the filtration of fermentable beer. |
| Yeast: The enzyme-producing
one-celled fungi of the genus Saccharomyces that is added to wort before the fermenting
process for the purpose of turning fermentable sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. |
