Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University's research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) AbstractThe effect of Maillard reaction products (MRPs), formed during the production of dark malts, on the synthesis of higher alcohols and esters in beer fermentations was investigated by headspace solid-phase microextraction GC-MS. Higher alcohol levels were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in dark malt fermentations, while the synthesis of esters was inhibited, due to possible suppression of enzyme activity and/or gene expression linked to ester synthesis. Yeast strain also affected flavour synthesis with Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain A01 producing considerably lower levels of higher alcohols and esters than S288c and L04. S288c produced approximately double the higher alcohol levels and around twenty times more esters compared to L04. Further investigations into malt type-yeast strain interactions in relation to flavour development are required to gain better understanding of flavour synthesis that could assist in the development of new products and reduce R&D costs for the industry.3