Renewing Traditions: A Sensory and Chemical Characterisation of Mexican Pigmented Corn Beers

Abstract

<jats:p>This study was undertaken to explore how the use of pigmented corn as brewing ingredient influences the sensory profile of craft beers, by using both sensory and chemical analyses. Six pigmented corn and barley beers were brewed and then analysed to obtain their sensory characteristics, volatile composition and non-volatile (alcohol, bitterness, anthocyanins and polyphenol content) composition. ANOVAs, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) were used to visualise these data for exploring the differences between beers based on the type of malt and to characterise corn beers considering the relationships between their sensory characteristics and their chemical parameters. The sensory attributes such as fermented fruits, cooked vegetables, tortillas, bread, dried fruits and dried chili characterised beers made 100% with pigmented corn. Over 100 volatiles were identified by head space-solid phase micro-extraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS). Among them, phenols and terpenes were the groups of volatiles that better characterised beers containing corn. The content of anthocyanins in corn beers provide the ‘amber-red-cooper’ colours in beers and may prevent the development of off-aromas and tastes. The use of pigmented corn seems to be a good option to renew the traditional ‘Sendechó’ while preserving some of its sensory attributes.</jats:p>

Enlarging Knowledge on Lager Beer Volatile Metabolites Using Multidimensional Gas Chromatography

“…A comprehensive study of lager beer volatile composition was provided by profiling 329 volatile metabolites (wherein 181 were putatively identified, and 96 were reported for the first time), which were distributed over eight chemical families with potential impact on beer aroma, namely, acids (17), alcohols (60), esters (87), monoterpenic compounds (91), norisoprenoids (16), sesquiterpenic compounds (42), sulfur compounds (13), and volatile phenols (3). As far as we know, this study represents the most in-depth and detailed profiling of the lager beer volatile composition, which was only possible due to the combination of the extraction technique (SPME), which allows a direct analysis of beer without the addition of any organic solvent (fulfils the criteria for the green analytical chemistry techniques), with the high sensitivity, chromatographic resolution and high throughput technique, such as the GC×GC-ToFMS.…”

“…The chemical families with higher number of detected metabolites present in Figure 4 were esters and monoterpenic compounds (ca. 90 metabolites each), followed by alcohols (60), sesquiterpenic compounds (42), acids (17), norisoprenoids (16), sulfur compounds (13), and volatile phenols (3). Moreover, the amount of each metabolite (median GC chromatographic peak area in all lager beer under study) is reflected in the edge' thickness, and also in the size of the volatile metabolites' name ( Figure 4), i.e., the higher GC chromatographic peak area is proportional to the highest volatile metabolites' names and edge thickness (e.g., octanoic acid and phenylethanol were the volatile metabolites with the highest GC chromatographic peak area, considering all the lager beers under study).…”

“…Furthermore, as esters are important beer volatiles (have low thresholds and contribute for beers overall aroma [56]), a detailed analysis was performed for different ester classes, namely, short-chain (fruity aromas [16]), long-chain (oily aromas [16]), and acetate esters (fruity aromas [16]). Short-chain and long-chain esters showed highest GC chromatographic areas for micro-bbs ( Figure S11), while acetate esters showed no statistical differences between macro-bbs and micro-bbs ( Figure S12).…”

“…Thus, metabolomics might be helpful to comprehend the relation of the composition with the sensory and nutritional quality of foods. Metabolomics have been used to differentiate beers according to their type [13,14], cereals type [15,16], hops [17], or yeasts footprinting [18][19][20][21]. Moreover, beer volatile metabolites were tracked along the brewing process [22,23], different storage conditions [24,25], or dealcoholization process [26].…”

The Role of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds on the Impact of Beer on Health

“…The result was a beer with total polyphenols concentration up to 560 mg GAE/L and of total anthocyanins up to 19.4 mg cyaniding-3-glucoside/L [ 150 ]. More recently, the same laboratory obtained blue or red corn malt blended beers with even higher total phenols amount (up to 849.5 mg GAE/L) and identified anthocyanins responsible for the final color yield of red and blue corn beers (pelargonidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-glucoside) [ 151 ]. Authors also identified, in corn beers both previously reported and unreported, volatile phenols conferring desirable aromas to beers.…”