Assessment of quality and production process of a non‐alcoholic stout beer using reverse osmosis

Abstract

The market for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beer has been increasing owing to factors such as health concerns, calorie content, strict traffic laws and religion, among others. Beer presents some good nutritional characteristics such as B-complex vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, fibre, protein and carbohydrates. The availability of non-alcoholic products is still very low in Brazil and worldwide. This study produced four samples of non-alcoholic dark beer derived from a Foreign Extra Stout beer style with 6.6% v/v alcohol using the process of reverse osmosis. The membrane filtration processes showed that the fouling rate coefficient increases with time and permeate volume while the flow decreases. The values of colour, bitterness, pH, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity were maintained close to the parameters of the standard beer (counter test) when the reverse osmosis process was conducted with a diluted sample at a temperature of 20 °C. Copyright © 2016 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling