Auxiliary bitter compounds in hops and the quality of bitterness in beer

Improving the harmony | The term “auxiliary bitter compounds” in hops refers to all bitter compounds in the hop resin which are transferred to the beer and are not iso-α-acids. The majority of these substances are considered desirable from a sensory perspective. The ratio of the non-specific EBC bittering units (spectrophotometric method) to the specific iso-α-acids (HPLC method) serves as an indicator for the amount of auxiliary bitter compounds in beer. The evaluation of various existing data demonstrates: adding larger amounts of aroma hops over several additions not only influences the aroma but also serves to improve the harmony of the beer bitterness.

Oxidative digestion of brewery spent grains

Electrolytic reactor | Spent grain remaining from beer production contains cellulose. To exploit this resource, a new method for delignification using active chlorine was developed at the ILT.NRW at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences in Lemgo together with Aquagroup AG in Weiden. This technology is also used to make disinfectants for beverage production applications.

Analyses in modern quality assurance, Part 1: Amylolitic issues

Starch breakdown | Modern analytical quality assurance in breweries covers a complex spectrum of tasks. Based on typical applications, this series of articles describes analytical approaches for evaluation of various processing problems in brewing unit operations, as well as possibilities for early identification of potential upset sources and prediction of product stability.

Malt analysis | Industry-wide change in analysis basis for light/pale barley malt. The Isothermal 65°C mashing procedure is replacing the congress mashing procedure. What brewers and maltster need to know …

A Yakima Valley native | Yakima Chief Hops (YCH), a 100% grower-owned global hop supplier for the craft brewing industry, has introduced Ryan Hopkins as YCH’s new Chief Executive Officer, promoting Hopkins from Chief Sales Officer.

Hop Products Australia | Hop Products Australia (HPA), part of the Barth Haas Group, has commissioned their new Buffalo River Valley processing facility on Wednesday 26 February 2020 ahead of the commercial hop harvest this March.

Arabinoxylan – a cytolytic parameter oftentimes disregarded?!

Establishing a measurement methodology | The arabinoxylan substance group has been hitherto largely disregarded in the area of beverage analyses and interpretation of technological repercussions, this is due in part to the limited availability of measurement methodology. However, it is a cell wall component that should not be underestimated and is possibly – in addition to β-glucans – another important indicator or technical parameter for cytolysis.

Characterisation of hop particle separation for efficient dry hopping

Hop filter cake | Dry hopped beers are a very important factor for the craft beer movement. In order to obtain the desired aroma profile, hops are added in the fermenter or storage tank. It goes without saying that solid particles added have to be removed with minimal losses after aroma extraction. Cake-forming filtration is thus investigated as a very promising alternative for solid-liquid separation processes used nowadays.

Hop research | The 5th International Humulus Symposium takes place in from 2 to 6 June 2020 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Malting barley report | The 2019 spring barley harvest has been largely traded in Europe. France and Great Britain served the market early and with low priced offers. Despite the qualitatively inconsistent and in some cases very weak supply, the European market assumes a surplus and maltsters nearly operate at full capacity.

Technical Support | As usual in December, we’re pleased to inform you about this year’s ratio of linalool to alpha acids.