Mass spectrometry for the characterization of brewing process

Adriana Fu Vivian; Caroline Tiemi Aoyagui; Diogo Noin de Oliveira; Rodrigo Ramos Catharino

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2016.08.008

Mass spectrometry for the characterization of brewing process

Food Res Int. 2016 Nov;89(Pt 1):281-288. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2016.08.008. Epub 2016 Aug 15.

Authors

Adriana Fu Vivian¹, Caroline Tiemi Aoyagui¹, Diogo Noin de Oliveira¹, Rodrigo Ramos Catharino²

Affiliations

¹ INNOVARE Biomarkers Laboratory, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-877, Brazil.
² INNOVARE Biomarkers Laboratory, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-877, Brazil. Electronic address: rrc@fcm.unicamp.br.

PMID: 28460916
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2016.08.008

Abstract

Beer is a carbonated alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting ingredients containing starch, especially malted cereals, and other compounds such as water, hops and yeast. The process comprises five main steps: malting, mashing, boiling, fermentation and maturation. There has been growing interest in the subject, since there is increasing demand for beer quality aspects and beer is a ubiquitous alcoholic beverage in the world. This study is based on the manufacturing process of a Brazilian craft brewery, which is characterized by withdrawing samples during key production stages and using electrospray ionization (ESI) high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), a selective and reliable technique used in the identification of substances in an expeditious and practical way. Multivariate data analysis, namely partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) is used to define its markers. In both positive and negative modes of PLS-DA score plot, it is possible to notice differences between each stage. VIP score analysis pointed out markers coherent with the process, such as barley components ((+)-catechin), small peptide varieties, hop content (humulone), yeast metabolic compounds and, in maturation, flavoring compounds (caproic acid, glutaric acid and 2,3-butanediol). Besides that, it was possible to identify other important substances such as off-flavor precursors and other different trace compounds, according to the focus given. This is an attractive alternative for the control of food and beverage industry, allowing a quick assessment of process status before it is finished, preventing higher production costs, ensuring quality and helping the control of desirable features, as flavor, foam stability and drinkability. Covering different classes of compounds, this approach suggests a novel analytical strategy: "processomics", aiming at understanding processes in detail, promoting control and being able to make improvements.

Keywords: Beer; Brewing; Mass spectrometry; PLS-DA; Processomics.