Monovarietal dry-hopped beers were produced with the dual-purpose hop cultivars Amarillo, Hallertau Blanc, and Mosaic. The grapefruit-like 3-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-1-ol was found in all three beers at concentrations much higher than expected on the basis of the free thiol content in hop. Even cysteinylated precursors proved unable to explain our results. As observed in wine, the occurrence of S-glutathione precursors was therefore suspected in hop. The analytical standards of S-3-(4-methyl-1-hydroxypentyl)glutathione, never described before, and of S-3-(1-hydroxyhexyl)glutathione, previously evidenced in grapes, were chemically synthesized. An optimized extraction of glutathionylated precursors was then applied to Amarillo, Hallertau Blanc, and Mosaic hop samples. HPLC-ESI(+)MS/MS revealed, for the first time, the occurrence of S-3-(1-hydroxyhexyl)glutathione and S-3-(4-methyl-1-hydroxypentyl)glutathione in hop, at levels well above those reported for their cysteinylated counterparts. S-3-(1-Hydroxyhexyl)glutathione emerged in all cases as the major adduct in hop. Yet, although 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol seems relatively ubiquitous in free, cysteinylated, and glutathionylated forms, the glutathione adduct of 3-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-1-ol, never evidenced in other plants up to now, was found only in the Hallertau Blanc variety.
Keywords: beer; dry-hopping; flavor; glutathione; hop (Humulus lupulus L.); polyfunctional thiols.