OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Autumn 2025 | 39 WHY IS RASLYSATION IN CIDER NOVEL? Traditional heating methods or flash pas- teurization, requires heating cider must/ wort to over 80°C only to then cool it down for fermentation. Raslysation replaces ther- mal and cooling energy with UVC light treatment at ambient temperatures, dra- matically reducing energy consumption and environmental impact—an exemplary move for the cider industry in terms of sus- tainability. SO HOW DOES THE TECHNOLOGY WORK? UVC light (at 254.9 nm) is biocidal. It effec- tively kills contaminant microbes by disrupt- ing their genetic material thereby inhibiting their capacity to carry out vital functions. The illustration shows the formation of thy- mine dimers caused by UVC light. THE USE OF UVC TECHNOLOGY INWATER TREATMENT IS UBIQUITOUS SO WHY IS THIS A BIG DEAL IN CIDER PRODUCTION? Lyras’s technology combines turbulent flow with thin film processing and continuous re- plenishment of the liquid to the UVC light. The reason this method matters, is because this allows for liquids other than water to be successfully UVC treated. This includes must, liquid adjuncts, beer recovered from surplus yeast, fruit juices, blood plasma, milk, brine, whey and lactoferrin. DO I NEED TO ADD LIQUID ADJUNCTS LIKE MALTOSE, DEXTROSE OR SUCROSE INTO THE WORT KETTLE TO STERILIZE THEM? Traditionally multinational brewers will add these into the wort kettle to sterilize them just in case there are any contaminant mi- crobes. Just like the cider process there is no requirement to heat or cool any liquid adjunct used in the brewing process. This could be added separately ambiently di- rectly into the fermentation vessel. Produc- tion of international lager brands that have 40% dextrose as fermentation inputs have been done using ultraviolet light rather than heat to sterilize the liquid adjunct and this method realized savings of around 25% the energy bill, gave better throughput in the brewhouse because liquid adjunct is not handled in the wort kettle and yielded bet- ter flavour and flavour stability. CAN UVC RASLYSATION REPLACE FLASH PASTEURIZATION PRIOR TO PACKAGING? For cider or other flavoured alcoholic bev- erages, yes, there is an opportunity to re- duce pasteurization units, but we are not at a point where we can totally replace pas- teurization without altering the final product flavour. More work is required in this regard For Beer, if traditional hops are used in the brewing process (alpha acid is isomerized to ISO alpha acid), you cannot use UVC Rasly- sation because you will form “lightstruck” off-flavour or what is commonly known as 3MBT. However, if you replace convention- al hops with oxidized beta acids which are light stable then yes you can replace flash pasteurization with UVC Raslysation. This certainly looks like and interesting future development in beer production.