Three Beer-Related Discoveries Just in Time for Fall Festivities

Frothy or smooth, bitter or sweet, light or dark: There’s a beer for most palates. As people around the world have poured over the best brews at recent Oktoberfest celebrations or ferment about their favorite fall-themed beers, three papers published in ACS journals crack open new insights into these beverages. And if you’re hop-ing to conduct studies to find which beer is good for what ales you, please drink responsibly.

Coriander’s origin changes beer flavor

Just like simmering a stew, brewing a beer with herbs and spices can enhance its flavor. A study in ACS Food Science & Technology reports that coriander seeds harvested from different countries (Bulgaria, Canada, Morocco and India) impart varying amounts of sweet, herbal and/or cooling flavors in Belgian white beers. The research group found that adding three compounds specific to Bulgarian coriander seeds could also enhance flowery characteristics in a model beer they created.

Barley proteins impact hop bitterness

Researchers in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry explored how malt from two different barley cultivars interacted with hop extracts during the wort-boiling stage of the brewing process. They found that wort prepared from the higher-protein barley malt had lower acid levels, which suggests the proteins trap and remove some of the bitter-tasting hop compounds that influence the beer’s final flavor. The researchers say these results could help brewers tailor the taste of their suds; for example, they could select low-protein barley for a hoppy beer.

Testing microbes for a probiotic beer

Functional beverages, such as prebiotic sodas, kombucha and fermented dairy drinks, are popular right now. To create a probiotic beer, researchers screened several different lactic acid-producing bacterial strains. Their comprehensive brewing experiments published in ACS Food Science & Technology demonstrated that five of the 21 strains tested could reach cellular counts associated with probiotic activity. But these counts were only reached in lightly hopped beers (below 2 international bitterness units (IBUs), a level that’s insufficient to give beer its signature bitterness). The next step for the researchers is testing the viability of the probiotic bacteria after carbonation, storage and consumption.

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