VIEW ARTICLE    DOI: 10.1094/ASBCJ-40-0137

Estimation of Sugars in Worts and Beers Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography with an Improved Column. G. K. Buckee and D. E. Long, Brewing Research Foundation, Nutfield, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 4HY, Great Britain. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 40:0137, 1982.

Methods are described in which high performance liquid chromatography is used to estimate the individual fermentable sugars in wort and beer. An evaluation of several different types of commercially packed columns revealed several disadvantages; in particular, these columns deteriorated quite rapidly, with loss of resolution and precision. Stainless steel columns, packed in the laboratory with silica and modified in situ with tetraethylenepentamine, have been shown to offer advantages over commercially available columns in terms of resolution, useful life, and cost. However, further improvements of resolution, precision, reliability, and ease of operation were obtained by using polythene rather than stainless steel columns and compressing the packing material radially with hydraulic pressure. Such a column has been used to analyze more than 350 wort samples with no significant loss in resolution or precision. Coefficients of variability were obtained for the following sugars: fructose, 7%; glucose, 1.7%; sucrose, 1.9%; maltose, 0.9%; and maltotriose, 1.8%.

Keywords: Analysis method, Beer, Carbohydrate, Chromatography Wort