Alcohol Recovery During Alcoholic Beverage Production

Distilleries and beverage producers often recover alcohol used to macerate or distill botanicals, fruit, herbs and other plant ingredients, as in gin, liqueurs, bitters and extracts. That recovered alcohol carries fine plant particles, fibers and other suspended solids. A vibratory solid-liquid separation sieve removes them before the alcohol is stored, reused or sent to the next step.

Why Filter Recovered Alcohol?

Suspended organic solids complicate downstream processing, storage, cleaning and reuse. Traditionally they are removed by settling and decanting, which ties up tanks and time. A vibratory sieve separates solids continuously instead, so recovered alcohol moves through the process faster.

Less Decanting, Fewer Tanks

Screening the liquid right after maceration or distillation can shorten, or in suitable cases eliminate, dedicated decanting steps. This can:

• Reduce settling and residence time
• Shrink decanting tank volume
• Recover alcohol more efficiently
• Reduce handling between steps
• Lower solids reaching downstream equipment
• Free up floor space

Fewer and smaller intermediate tanks can lower both capital and operating cost, depending on the overall process.

How Vibratory Screening Works Here

For low-viscosity, ethanol-rich streams, a circular vibratory sieve installs directly in the line. Vibration helps liquid pass through the mesh while retained solids move continuously to a separate outlet. Configuration depends on:

• Target clarity, which sets the mesh opening
• Flow rate in gpm, which sets screen area and machine size
• Solids concentration, which affects configuration and discharge
• Particle type: fibers, botanicals and fruit residue behave differently
• Installation point, chosen to remove solids without disrupting the process

316 Stainless Steel Contact Parts

Product-contact parts in 316 stainless steel resist corrosion and support the sanitation practices common in beverage plants. An accessible, sanitary design simplifies inspection and cleaning between batches and recipes.

Hazardous-Location Considerations

Alcohol vapor can create a flammable atmosphere. Where a sieve sits in a classified area, motors, electrical components, instruments and grounding must match the area classification. Explosion-protected designs are available, and hazardous-location requirements are reviewed for each U.S. project.

Typical Installation Points

• Downstream of stills
• After botanical or fruit maceration
• At intermediate alcohol collection tanks
• Before recovered alcohol storage
• Before alcohol returns to production
• Where alcohol is separated from spent botanicals

Benefits

• Continuous filtration without relying on gravity settling
• Less decanting and fewer intermediate tanks
• Better alcohol recovery for reuse
• Compact installation near existing tanks and piping
• Corrosion-resistant 316 stainless construction
• Hazardous-location options for vapor areas

TiERMAX Alcohol Filtration Solutions

We configure each system for flow rate, solids loading, clarity target, mesh, product, layout, cleaning needs and area classification, helping U.S. distilleries and beverage plants simplify solids removal and reuse more alcohol.