From wheat to wheat malt – changes in the protein fractions

Of the grains used in brewing, very extensive research on malting barley has been carried out the world over. By contrast, relatively little is known about “malting wheat”. Beer is comprised of more than 450 substances, all of which have an impact on flavor, aroma, color, stability and quality, thus ranking it among the world’s most complex foodstuffs. Since the raw materials have a significant influence on the composition of the finished beer, the need for research is compelling. For this reason, work is now being carried out with the support of the Wissenschaftliche Station für Brauerei in Munich, Germany, and the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology at the TU München in collaboration with University College Cork and the Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL) on wheat used as malt in beer production.

Simply Hops and White Labs announced a partnership aimed at providing the growing UK craft brew market with the very best live yeast cultures.

It is well known that alpha acids in hops are responsible for beers bitterness via their thermal isomerization into iso-alpha acids during the kettle boil. Alpha acids that don’t isomerize generally absorb onto the trub and yeast during fermentation, with little if any getting into the final beer.

It is well known that hop is a nitrate storing plant and therefore the concentrations are rather high, as shown in the graph below with the data from crop 2013. The various colors stand for different growing regions. Yellow (Spalt), blue (Tettnang), green (Hallertau) and red (Elbe-Saale) are the German growing areas and the US hops are presented in grey. The values vary between 4410 and 9900 mg/kg.

Clearly the occurrence and control of gushing is a critically important quality factor for many brewers. A large number of studies, publications, and presentations have addressed this topic in the past. Efforts to identify gushing promoters have focused on species generated from barley degradation and infestation, and, to a lesser extent hop constituents, among others. The use by brewers of pre-isomerized hop acid products, including isohumulones and reduced forms such as di-, tetra-, and hexa-hydroisohumulones, continues to increase. To date, a comprehensive study to evaluate the potential for these advanced hop products to either promote or suppress the gushing phenomenon has not been reported..

Among the various compounds brought in to beer by hop, mono- and sesqui- terpenoids are the most studied and contribute to a certain extent to the hoppy aroma of beer. Previous studies have indicated that the concentration of these compounds in beer depends on the hop variety. The impact of new hop varieties created by the French hop growers association and their cooperative in comparison to the old variety Strisselspalt on the terpenoid content in beer has been analyzed by Stir-Bar Sorptive-Extraction-Gas-

Application of next generation DNA sequencing technology to hops yielded an unprecedented, large number of novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (17, 128 SNPs). The markers were detected and then validated for use in genotyping and control of quality for hops. By using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and a universal network-enabled analysis kit (UNEAK) designed for species with no “reference genome”, we generated a set of molecular markers with a genome-wide distribution. Validation of the markers was accomplished by observation of metrics of sequencing quality, by marker behavior in genetic segregation and by application to genetic distance and hierarchical cluster analyses across a set of commonly known cultivars. The SNPs were characterized by average read depth of 3.82.5, 0.75 and 0..

Lipids are very diverse in chemical structure and properties. They are spread over a wide polarity range, thus comprehensive lipid analysis (lipidomics) from biological samples such as hops is challenging. The current study presents a straightforward route for extraction, classification and quantification of hop lipids. Offline LC-GC-MS enables separation of polar, neutral and non-polar lipids, as well as the individual analysis of fatty acid type and content. Unambiguous identification and precise quantification of C14-C22 fatty acids was

Beer is one of the most consumed beverages in the world due to its alluring taste and aroma, and much effort has been made to reveal the structures responsible for the sensory sensation. However, the precise contribution of hop-derived volatiles towards the hoppy aroma of beer is far from being understood. For a long time, the aroma of fresh beer was believed to be mainly imparted by a few single compounds. Yet, studies

For the most parts of Europe, spring barley leaves a good or very good impression of qualities. Even if protein values are low sometimes, there is great satisfaction about the qualities.

As in previous years we would like to demonstrate how the contribution of hop oils to beer can vary from one crop year to another. We have chosen linalool as a representative hop aroma substance as it correlates well with the sensory impression of hoppy aroma in beer.