Volatile fingerprinting differentiates diverse-aged craft beers

Abstract

Beer ageing on wood is a complex and difficult to control process involving several reactions and compounds. Difficulties in understanding the underlying phenomena often lead to empirical and unpredictable processes and heterogeneous products. This work resorts to volatile fingerprinting along with multivariate analysis as tools to differentiate and highlight differences in beers derived from diverse production processes. Volatile composition of beers originating from barrel ageing processes and unaged beer were analyzed by GC-MS. The collected data was processed by principal component analysis, which allowed the evaluation of relations between samples and volatile compounds. Beers were distinguished by clusters comprising different groups of volatiles. Beer with the longest period in barrel was in the cluster with the most volatiles. Beer produced by resident barrel microbiota fermentation was characterized by presence of Brettanomyces sp. metabolites. Beer aged in barrel by a shorter time period showed characteristic content of ethyl esters and oak extractives. Beer produced in inox vat and beer fermented in barrel with pitching of S. cerevisiae appeared in the same cluster, relating with fermentative esters. Volatile fingerprinting was a viable approach to characterize and distinguish the analyzed beers, providing relevant information regarding the impact of production methodologies in volatile composition.

Development of Head Space Sorptive Extraction Method for the Determination of Volatile Compounds in Beer and Comparison with Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction

“…Most of these compounds have demonstrated to be odour-active compounds for the aroma of beers [28]. Similar results had been found in previous studies where different extraction techniques had been used [8,13,25,27,29]. However, other compounds such as benzaldehyde, guaiacol, linalool, hexanoic acid 2-phenylethyl ester or heptanol were only identified in some of the beer types.…”

Quality Characteristics of Wheat Malts with Different Country of Origin and Their Effect on Beer Brewing

“…is may be because of the concentration of phenylalanine derived from KM during mashing. Benzeneethanol is commonly found in various alcoholic beverages, and its sensory descriptor is a floral aroma [36,37]. Methionol is an organosulphur compound that can be found in diverse foods and beverages and contributes a characteristic flavour.…”

Beer Molecules and Its Sensory and Biological Properties: A Review

“…This compound affects beer drinkability since beer flavor is described by sensory analysis as heavier when amyl alcohol content increases. Another higher alcohol that affects beer quality is isobutyl alcohol, and its undesirable effect can be perceived when its concentration in beer exceeds 20% of the total concentration of three other alcohols, such as N -propanol, isobutyl, and amyl [9,10,61,64].…”