3rd Annual Alcoholic Beverages Virtual Symposium - Beer

Join Agilent and GERSTEL for our annual virtual seminar discussing how you can assure safety, authenticity, and quality of alcoholic beverages. Sharing the latest in technology developments and capabilities, new applications, and customer stories. Topics include distilled beverages, wine and beer. There is something for everyone in this seminar series and we hope to see you there.

Attend live and receive an Agilent GC wine glass!

Presentation 1: Evolution of malt, hop and fermentation-derived flavor compounds throughout the brewing of a single malt, single hop (SMaSH) ale

Beer is a complex mixture of volatile and nonvolatile compounds that arise from malt, hops and fermentation by yeast. Some compounds are extracted from malt and hops during mashing and boiling, respectively. Others are products of reactions that occur throughout the brewing process, such as Maillard reactions, Strecker degradation reactions, the isomerization of alpha-acids and the Ehrlich pathway in yeast. The integration of GC/MS and LC/MS data affords the ability to monitor these reactions in real time. Targeted metabolomic techniques were used to show formation of volatile flavor compounds from their nonvolatile precursors, (e.g. amino acids) and the transformation of non-volatile hop-derived compounds, thus providing a detailed picture of flavor development throughout brewing of a single malt, single hop beer.

Key Learning Objectives/What attendees will learn:

• Integration of SPME GC/MS, HILIC LC/MS and RP LC/MS data to monitor the production of flavor compounds from nonvolatile precursors throughout the beer brewing process
• Utilization of targeted metabolomic techniques to identify reaction intermediates produced from nonvolatile precursors en route to volatile flavor compounds

Who Should Attend:

• Those interested in the comprehensive mass spectrometric characterization of precursors and metabolites produced during beer brewing and fermentation
• Brewers, brewery chemists, food chemists

Presenter: Christine Hughey (Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, James Madison University)

Dr. Hughey is a Professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. She is an analytical chemist with expertise in mass spectrometry who has collaborated with food chemists and brewers for over two decades. Her most recent collaboration with the Madison Academic Brewery, housed within the Engineering Department at JMU, has focused on the integration of GC/MS and LC/MS techniques to monitor reactions that produce flavor compounds during brewing and fermentation.

Presentation 2: Beer Soluble Hop Compounds: Translating Raw Hop Aroma to Finished Beer

Translating hop aroma to finished beer aroma has been a brewing challenge for years. Hops have been a primary ingredient in beer for over a thousand years for preservation as well as bittering because of their humulone compounds. That is not the only reason that hops are used in beer the Craft beer industry brought back the use of hops for flavor and aroma to create floral, citrus and fruity beers. Instead of utilizing hops early in the kettle boil for bitterness the brewers utilize hops in late kettle additions, and after primary fermentation to extract the aroma from hops. The goal is to extract the pleasant aroma that one can smell in hops and capture it into the final beer.

Utilizing an Agilent GC/MS that was outfitted with a Gerstel MPS for the use of Twister stir bars in conjunction with a Thermal Desorption Unit (TDU) for raw hop and beer analysis it was determined that a select handful of hop derived compounds were consistently present in beer samples contributing to the overall flavor and aroma. A second Agilent GC was purchased that was outfitted with a Quadrupole Time-of-Flight (Q-ToF) and a Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detector (SCD). This instrument was also set up with a Gerstel robotic MPS and TDU/CIS. With the addition of the SCD, sulfur-containing compounds became an area of focus along with the select handful of compounds present in beer which are collectively known as the ‘survivables’. These compounds are isobutyl isobutyrate, isoamyl isobutyrate, 2-methylbutyl isobutyrate, methyl geranate, 2-nonanone, geraniol, linalool and 3-mercaptohexanol. The concentrations of these select compounds were determined across the hop varieties YCH supplies and utilize that data to help brewers make more informed decisions about when and what varieties to add during the brewing process to provide the strongest impact to their final beer. This data was to create pellet blends where hop varietals are blended to maximize the ‘survivable’ compounds content, which was released as a new product.

Most recently, YCH has acquired two more GC/MS systems for quantitative analysis of these ‘survivable’ compounds for all hop products. The new systems are equipped with carousel-style autosamplers with a syringe for liquid injection samples. The aromatics are extracted by steam distillation and the hop oil sample diluted in hexane and injected with the syringe into a high-temperature inlet followed by introduction in the analytical column. With these new systems and developed analytical method, we can offer the analytical data for ‘survivables’ to brewers on all product types.

Key Learning Objectives/What attendees will learn:

• A description of the research conducted that started as exploratory research to a final QC analytical methodology.
• Methods for using beer soluble hop compound research to design efficient recipes and a blended hop product that targets these compounds.

Presenter: Patrick Jensen (Director of R&D, Yakima Chief Hops LLC)

Patrick Jensen has been with YCH for more than five years. He was born in Yakima, Washington and knew nothing of hops and beer until he graduated from Central Washington University with a B.S. in chemistry in 2004. He owned a Thai restaurant where he was the head chef, but soon after graduation ended up in the hop industry. He has managed several hop quality laboratories since and is the Director of Research and Development for Yakima Chiefs Hops. He works to develop analytical methods for hop and brewing research, develops new products and provides technical expertise to our growers, production processes, quality control and sales team. Pat believes all beer is great, because…can you believe I get paid me to do what I love? He lives in Yakima, Washington with his wife, daughter, and twin autistic sons.

Presenter: Jacqueline Brummett (R&D Laboratory Supervisor, Yakima Chief Hops LLC)

Jacqueline Brummett is a born and raised Washington resident who graduated from Central Washington University with a BS in Biological Sciences. After working in clinical lab in Seattle, Jacqueline relocated to Yakima and now supervises the Research and Development Lab at YCH. Jacqueline coordinates the analysis to support sensory team and pilot brewery projects in addition to conducting trials to further explore the many facets of hops. Her current area of focus has been on GC/MS method development for hop oil analysis.