It is without doubt that aroma is among the important drivers of beer quality, or in other words of consumer acceptance. It is also well established today that during food consumption, a certain set of volatile constituents induces a pattern of neural activity in the olfactory bulb. The complex neural patterns generated at the odorant receptor sites are finally “translated” by our brain into a simple perception telling us, for example, the aroma quality of a given product. However, since the overall aroma of beers can significantly be influenced by the recipe and the processing conditions, there is a clear need to understand the aroma signature of beer on the molecular level in order to steer its quality or its consumer acceptance, respectively. By application of the SENSOMICS concept on the volatiles isolated from a German Pilsner-type beer, a Bavarian wheat beer and a British Guiness beer, differences in the key aroma compounds were elucidated by GC-Olfactometry and a calculation of odor activity values. Finally the results were established by recombining the odorants in the same concentrations as they occurred in the three beers using ethanol/water as the matrix. Correlations to the overall aroma profiles will be discussed.

Unraveling the key aroma compounds of different types of beer: Are differences in aroma profiles caused by quantitative or qualitative differences in key odorants?

251st National Meeting (2016)

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