Characterizing the filtration behavior of hop particles for efficient dry hopping methods

The market of craft beer has been constantly growing in the last few years. Within the craft beer movement, dry hopped beers are of preeminent importance. In order to achieve the pronounced aroma profile desired in these beverages, hops, mostly in the form of pellets, are introduced into the fermentation or maturation tank. Consequently, the added solid particles have to be removed after the aroma extraction. Since the available separation equipment in most breweries is not optimal for this task, a considerable amount of product is often lost in the process. Therefore, cake-forming filtration is explored as a promising alternative for the currently used solid-liquid separation techniques. This study reports data regarding the properties of hop filter cakes and the relevant operational parameters for the separation of hop particles from beer. These findings may directly help breweries reduce the duration of dry hopping while increasing the product yield.