Post-treatment of cachaca (Brazilian sugarcane spirit) with charcoal made from cane bagasse

The objective of this study was to ferment sugarcane juice using two types of yeast and evaluate the quality of the distillate after beverage filtration in a column filled with ground charcoal derived from cane bagasse. The experimental design was randomized block (split plots, 2 x 2) with three replicates. The primary treatment involved two types of yeast: CA-11 and baker’s yeast. Secondary treatment involved filtration or not of the beverage in the charcoal column. The following procedures were adopted: percolation of all samples to a single column and passage of the distillate from each repetition (blocks) using three similar columns. Selected yeast had similar cachaca production as compared to the baker’s yeast. However, higher acidity occurred in the distillate using the selected yeast, which contributed to the increased transfer of copper to the beverage. In the charcoal filtration that used one column per block, the copper was removed from the beverage, and the acidity was decreased, whereas the alcohol content, fixed acidity, pH, and turbidity of the cachaca did not change. Key words: Spirits, yeast strains, fermentation, distillation, filtration columns.