Unveiling the lager beer volatile terpenic compounds

Abstract

Beer volatile terpenic compounds arise from a network of variables, namely from plant raw-materials metabolism, yeast metabolism, among others, and may suffer modifications during brewing. In order to increase the molecular understanding of beer volatile terpenic compounds, this work intends to perform a comprehensive characterization of these molecules on lager beer, using an advanced multidimensional chromatographic methodology. This research comprises the most detailed screening of lager beer terpenic compounds through the putative identification of 94 mono and sesquiterpenic compounds, distributed over 6 chemical families: alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, hydrocarbons, and oxides. The terpenic profiles allowed the beer terpen-typing according to samples' category clustering: macro and micro-brewer beers. This study adds further insight to the lager beer terpenic volatile composition, and could be applied in large-scale studies in different contexts, namely for understanding the distinctive beer styles or for beer typing.