Avaliação do efeito da bidestilação na qualidade da aguardente de mel de abelha (Apis mellifera).

Abstract

Honey has been used for centuries in the preparation of beverages, and can be fermented to produce different types of mead, or fermented and distilled, giving rise to the distilled or distilled honey spirit when the disintegration process occurs, Which may have different flavors depending on the floral origin of the honey, additives and yeasts used in the fermentation. The objective of this work was to characterize bee honey in terms of its physico-chemical characteristics, to analyze the fermentation process, to study the distillation process and the bi-distillation process of the alcoholic fermentation of bee honey and to evaluate the effect of these on the physicochemical characteristics of the distillates obtained. The fermented bees honey were subjected to physical and chemical analyzes of total and volatile acidity, total reducing sugars and cell concentration, and afterwards it was distilled and double distilled in a simple copper alembic following the methodology used in the production of whiskey (PIGGOTT and CONNER, 2003). The distilled spirits obtained by the distillation process obtained satisfactory results in terms of the physicochemical quality of the distillate, where all the results are in accordance with the Brazilian legislation in force (BRASIL, 2005), as well as the spirits produced by the process of double distillation, With even better results when purchased with the distillate obtained by the simple distillation process.