One of the disadvantages of non-alcoholic beers is that their aroma and flavor are lost and it is not easy to recover these aromatic components. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Valladolid (Spain) has achieved this thanks to a pervaporation process. The study has been published in the Journal of Food Engineering .
For their study, the scientists used two types of beer: one with 5.5% alcohol and another with 6.5%. From both they extracted three aromatic compounds; specifically, ethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate, and isobutyl alcohol . The three compounds were then added to both non-alcoholic beers (with less than 1% alcohol) and at 0.0 (with less than 0.1%).
“This technique consists of using a semi-permeable membrane to separate two fractions from the beer with alcohol: a liquid phase in which the alcohol is retained, and a gaseous phase where the aromatic compounds are present. Afterwards, this gaseous phase can be condensed, the aromatic substances extracted and added to the non-alcoholic beer ”, Carlos A. Blanco, co-author of the work, explains to Sinc.
After tasting the resulting beers before a panel of experts, 80% chose the 0.0 beer enriched with the compounds as the best in aroma and flavor, above the original factory beers. In addition, this percentage increased to 90% for the fortified non-alcoholic beer .
“In view of these results, we conclude that there is an improvement in the taste , and therefore in the quality of this type of drink ‘without’, since most of the members of the panel preferred the additive beer over the original ”Emphasizes Blanco.
