VIEW ARTICLE    DOI: 10.1094/ASBCJ-45-0019

Hop Flavor Constituents in Beer by Headspace Analysis. Aki Murakami, Etzer Chicoye, and Henry Goldstein, Miller Brewing Company, Technical Center, 3939 West Highland Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI 53201. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 45:0019, 1987.

The purpose of this research was to identify important hop-derived flavor compounds in beer. Unlike much previous work in this area, we used a recently developed headspace analysis method. Briefly, the method involves dynamic headspace displacement of beer volatiles onto a porous polymer trap, reconcentration in a cold trap, and direct transfer to a gas chromatographic capillary column for separation. Detection was by flame ionization detector (FID), flame photometric detector (FPD), and mass spectrometry (MS). Striking differences were found in chromatograms of hopped and unhopped beers. Approximately 72 peaks were present in the chromatogram of hopped beer that were absent in the chromatogram of unhopped beer. These differences between hopped and unhopped beers were observed by FID, FPD, and MS. The selective detection of FPD, particularly, revealed the differences in sulfur-containing volatile compounds that otherwise would be obscured by interfering peaks in the FID and MS detections. The described technique promises to be extremely useful for identifying hop-derived compounds that could be important to hop aroma in beer.

Keywords: Headspace analysis, Hop aroma, Hopped beer, Unhopped beer