Key constituents, flavour profiles and specific sensory evaluation of wheat style non‐alcoholic beers depending on their production method
Magdalena Müller, Martina Gastl, Thomas Becker
Abstract
Analytical and sensory profiles of non-alcoholic beers (NAB) vary on the process used for their production. The style and production procedure with blending and subsequent aroma enhancement lead to a wide range of product specific characteristics, which have so far only been evaluated using attributes and schemes developed for standard alcoholic beers. There has been no comparison and characterisation of wheat style NABs from different production processes using olfactrometry in combination with sensory analysis. GC-O/MS sniffing was performed to identify the aroma active components in wheat style NABs produced by different methods and the alcoholic standard beer to determine the differences in their aroma spectrum. Based on this, a sensory scheme for the targeted assessment of aroma profile, flavour intensity and attributes describing non-volatile properties was developed and validated using top fermented NABs. The odour activity of aroma substances differ depending on the matrix. The choice of attributes varies depending on the production process and aroma profiling is not always sufficient for the holistic characterisation of NABs. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of the Institute of Brewing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institute of Brewing & Distilling.