Analysis of the flavor of aged spirits made from sweet potato and rice by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2017 Dec 12;27(2):313-322. doi: 10.1007/s10068-017-0250-8. eCollection 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Flavor patterns of sweet potato spirits (SPS) made from sul-deot manufactured by sweet potato showed an increasing tendency for aging from 64 to 128 weeks. When the SPS was blended with spirits made from sul-deot manufactured by rice in a 7:3 ratio, showing an increase for aging from 16 to 60 weeks, using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with solid-phase microextration. The main compounds showing increasing tendency of the SPS and blended spirits (BS) were iso-amyl alcohol, n-propanol. Especially, ethyl caprylate, and ethyl acetate increased in SPS. The results were cross-checked by an electronic nose. For the results of SPS in the flavor pattern, a decrease was noted by main ion fragments. For the BS, a decrease was noted. These cross-checked results were useful for controlling quality of aging spirits, especially SPS. Based on these results, it was considered that further experiments are needed to identify key compounds for accurate correlation analysis.

Keywords: Aging; Distilled spirits; Electronic nose; Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).