Mycotoxins are a diverse range of molecules that are harmful to humans. They are secondary metabolites secreted by moulds, mostly Penicillium and Fusarium. Because of their antimicrobial activity it is most unlikely that hops could be considered a source for mycotoxins. In order to confirm this we again monitored the situation concerning residues of most toxic mycotoxins by screening hops after the last harvest. In our investigations, all major European varieties from different growing areas were considered. To guarantee a representative analysis, ten samples of large lots were selected and then combined into one composite sample for each variety. These results for the 2010 crop are presented in the table below.

Downstream products, such as regular iso extract, rhohydro-iso-, terahydro-iso- and hexahydro-iso extracts, are usually dosed prior to filtration. However in practice some brewers are still adding these extracts after filtration, when there is a distinct risk of precipitation in beer and therefore also of inducing gushing.

For the evaluation of the intrinsic lautering performance of malt an in-house test, predictive for both lauter tun and mash filter operations, has been used. Commercial thermostable endoxylanases added during mashing differ in their ability to increase the filtration rate. Especially the addition of a family 10 endoxylanase at mashing-in can be very efficient in view of wort filtration. Family 10 endoxylanases degrade barley arabinoxylans in an effective way and are not inhibited by the Hordeum vulgare L. xylanase inhibitor (HVXI) purified from barley. Moreover, the addition of this family 10 endoxylanase during germination has a positive effect on the filtration capacity of the kilned malt because the added endoxylanase activity is only partly destroyed during kilning..

Flavour is the significant criterion of evaluation in beer tasting, which depends on many primary and secondary causes. This includes desirable and un-desirable aromatic compounds, but also haptic and physical issues like viscosity, the CO2-level and colour. A beverage for example with a nontypical colour presented in a wrong drinking vessel is always evaluated differently to the “correct” form without any modifications.

Looking to the links and communication in the supply chain, he commented that procurement strategies which place opposing demands on commercial and technical departments are not sustainable. In particular, he identified that the growers, merchants, maltsters and end users who worked closely together were realizing benefits of sustainability that allowed better business management across the cycle. Volatility in prices on the open market resulted from short-term opportunism at various points in the chain. At the extreme, loss of malting barley to export markets, often as feed barley, could results in shortfalls for UK supply – which benefits no-one in the UK market for malt.

The precise determination of Bisphenol A (BPA) amounts in complex matrix like beer is presented. A practical, rapid and reliable sample preparation procedure for BPA determination is shown. The application of stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) utilizing labmade deuterated BPA standards made it possible to obtain accurate analytical data. BPA concentrations in seven randomly chosen canned beers ranged from 1 µg BPA/L to 6.5 µg BPA/L. Compared to other canned foodstuff these amounts are low and presumably safe.

BrewingScience - Monatsschrift für Brauwissenschaft, 63 (September/October 2010), pp. 122-127

In the beverage industry labels are removed from returnable bottles in bottle cleaning machines. For a successful cleaning process the labels come-off time is crucial. If the labels detach too late in this process, they can block rinsing nozzles and affect the cleaning effectiveness of the machine.

The Hopsteiner Guidelines 2010 will soon be published and be available at BRAU 2010 in Nuremberg. We are still working on some details of the beer production and will present the balance of World Alpha Acid Supply and Demand as soon as possible.

The production of biogas from organic wastes originating during beer production offers an economically viable and environmentally sustainable alternative to existing recycling solutions. Using the biogas technology “ENBAFERM” patented by the Austrian company enbasys®, it is possible to integrate biogas production into an existing brewery, thus guaranteeing optimized energy production on-site. Since 2009, a demonstration system incorporating this technology has been in operation at the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan in Freising, Germany. This system has been successfully used to ferment spent yeast and spent grain waste.

The weather conditions this year had a substantial effect on the spring barley throughout Europe. The harvest is going to be smaller than it was expected. There are going to be problems with the crops that were harvested late. One will probably expect a shortage with malting barley in Europe next year at the latest.

Light Stable Kettle Extract (LSKE) can be used to brew beers in much the same way as beers produced using conventional CO2-Extract.