The brewing industry’s utopia becomes reality

Using one single brew for a variety of different kinds of beers used to be a pipe dream. With its innovative approach BrewTopia, however, flavouring manufacturer Symrise does the impossible and opens new doors for the brewing industry.

After three years of basic research, Symrise is now presenting its innovative portfolio of flavourings for the brewing industry. Harald Schmidt, Category Director Alcoholic Beverages at Symrise, has no doubts about the product. “Many beer brewers have a dream: they wish it were possible to use a single bottom-fermented brew — just one! — and then adjust the beer type downstream, at the end of the process. That would let them make lager today, pilsner tomorrow, stout after that. And BrewTopia lets them do just that — without any loss of flavour.”

Since BrewTopia makes it possible to use a single brew and add flavourings to create entirely different types, this does away with the relatively high costs of diversifying production. Having a separate brew for each type of beer is no longer necessary. But BrewTopia can do even more. A BrewTopia flavouring, as Harald Schmidt explains, always starts with a modular structure, so the entire spectrum of different profiles can be reproduced to create pilsners, ales, stouts and others. On top of that, there is a second kind of component called boosters; they enhance nuances like fruitiness, malt, hops and bitter notes so that any flavouring components that are lost can be offset. For example, if a brew does not contain much malt, the typical intense malt flavour can be created in the finished product by adding a malt booster. Towards the end, a third component can be added if desired — specialties like cooling flavours, for example. This approach also gives manufacturers plenty of room to manoeuvre when it comes to product labelling, because BrewTopia features a variety of kinds of flavourings — everything from nature-identical and natural flavours to FTNS (from the named source) products that are a by-product of the brewing process.

The experts at Symrise have invested a great deal of time and money into this approach. After three years of intensive research, Symrise is now sharing its new expertise in the field. Cornelia Lichter, Marketing Director Beverages (EAME), explains: “Flavouring expertise is a major aspect of using BrewTopia, and application knowledge is another indispensable factor. We are not just specialists for creating a good beer flavouring — we’re also competent partners in brewing technology and all of the related processes.”

Something for global target groups – and industries

This flexibility is a major advantage for manufacturers. Today’s beer drinkers want more than just their "regular" beer. They like variety: a lager today, an English wheat beer on the weekend, a Christmas beer in the winter. There is a clear demand for different kinds of beers with distinctive flavours and an appealing look. Cornelia Lichter says, “BrewTopia can let a non-alcoholic beer taste of beer again, since it helps us restore the flavouring elements that were lost when the alcohol was removed. And BrewTopia can also give non-alcoholic malted products a much more authentic beer flavour, an application which is especially interesting for Arab markets.” In Germany, where BrewTopia was born, the spectrum of possible uses is quite limited because the national purity laws forbid the use of flavourings in beer.

A great taste is top priority

With all the features that BrewTopia promises – cost-efficiency, product diversity, customization – where does the flavour factor come in? “There can’t be the hint of anything synthetic. The most important point was to maintain an authentic beer flavour,” Harald Schmidt states. There are very subtle sensory notes involved here: “We’re dealing with fingerprints which you can’t really pinpoint exactly. We’ve done our job properly when you can’t even tell that you’re drinking something flavoured, and now we have achieved that goal.”