Good Manufacturing Practices and Food Safety
QUALITY GUARANTEE
Enjoying good moments tasting the cachaças produced at Alambique Guarani is pleasurable, and this is due to the quality attributes acquired throughout the fully controlled manufacturing process.
The entire team at Alambique Guarani is continuously concerned with maintaining a unique, standardized, safe, and unmatched product!
To guarantee all these qualities that delight everyone who tastes the cachaça, we do not spare efforts. To show that producing cachaça while maintaining secular tradition, adding technologies, and organization requires dedication and a lot of passion, we invite you to learn about the care taken in our manufacturing process.
CARE DURING THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
1 - Sugarcane Harvesting
The determination of the sugarcane's maturity point is carried out by reading the “brix”. This analysis allows the estimation of the percentage of sugar present, since, in mature sugarcane, approximately 95% of the total solids correspond to sugar. All the sugarcane harvested is used on the same day, so the time between harvesting and use of the sugarcane does not exceed a total of 12 hours, which guarantees the maintenance of the properties of the sugarcane and the quality of the cachaça.
2 - Milling
Upon reaching the still, the sugarcane is unloaded, washed, drained and stored in the shade.
3- Standardization
The fresh juice passes through a stainless steel decanter and filter screens that remove any solid impurities that may exist, and then goes on to standardization, where it is rigorously controlled, adjusting the sugar content (brix), acidity, pH and temperature.
4 - Fermentation
Our fermentation is strictly monitored and we do not use any type of chemical additive. Our yeast works for 18 to 24 hours, producing a high-quality sugarcane wine that imparts superior sensory properties to the cachaça. In addition to having good yeast, it is important to ensure that it has the best conditions for development, which is why we monitor the process during fermentation to ensure that everything is going as planned, right up until the end of fermentation.
5 - Distillation
Fermented sugarcane juice, known as wine, is made up of a mixture of several components that must be separated through the distillation process. Our distillation is done in copper stills that operate on steam. The Head, Heart and Tail fractions of the distillate are rigorously separated, with only the Heart being stored and aged. Distillation is a meticulous step that requires great care. Throughout the process, we control the temperature and alcohol content of the juice to allow the separation of the Heart, which will be used to produce our cachaças. When separating the Heart, we perform an analysis of residual copper and acidity to identify whether the parameters are within the standards established to ensure the safety of the product.
6 - Storage and aging
Our cachaça is stored in a controlled environment, in Amburana, Jequitibá Rosa and Stainless Steel barrels, where it remains for at least one year, acquiring incomparable flavor and smoothness. The aging takes place in oak barrels, with temperature and humidity controlled to ensure perfect harmony between the cachaça and the wood.
7 - Filtration
This phase of the process is essential for the quality of our cachaças, which initially pass through a cation exchange filter, which eliminates any heavy metals that may be present, and then a polishing filter gives all the smoothness and purity to our drinks. After filtration, a new analysis is performed on the product, this time analyzing all the controlled compounds in the cachaça:
8 - Bottling
Periodically, our Master Blender performs sensory analyses of the drink and determines the right time to release the cachaça for bottling, which occurs in a controlled manner, in equipment and in an environment suitable for the activity, and which allows the quality and safety of the product to be maintained.
APPROVAL BY THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK AND SUPPLY (MAPA)
Along with the dream of building a distillery came the concern of doing so in a way that would meet all the legal requirements for the production and sale of cachaça. At this time, the team involved in the project began to dedicate itself to studying the specificities of this business and, while everything was still on paper, we sought to contact the agencies responsible for legal regulations. This initial contact was essential to ensure that our production flow would be efficient.
As soon as the project took shape, we received the Establishment Registration issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, number MG 90864-9, in addition to the registrations of all the cachaças produced at Alambique Guarani under our brands: Dom Bré and Costa Rica.
This registration is mandatory and means that Alambique Guarani follows all the concepts of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), care for the health and occupational safety of employees and respect for the consumer, established by the Ministry of Agriculture. The product registration number is always printed on the cachaça label.
