Evaluation of different yeast strains on the quality of beer produced from malted proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.)

The Role of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds on the Impact of Beer on Health

This review reports recent knowledge on the role of ingredients (barley, hop and yeasts), including genetic factors, on the final yield of phenolic compounds in beer, and how these molecules generally affect resulting beer attributes, focusing mainly on new attempts at the enrichment of beer phenols, with fruits or cereals other than barley. An entire section is dedicated to health-related effects, analyzing the degree up to which studies, investigating phenols-related health effects of beer, have appropriately considered the contribution of alcohol (pure or spirits) intake. For such purpose, we searched Scopus.com for any kind of experimental model (in vitro, animal, human observational or intervention) using beer and considering phenols. Overall, data reported so far support the existence of the somehow additive or synergistic effects of phenols and ethanol present in beer. However, findings are inconclusive and thus deserve further animal and human studies.

Capitalizing on a double crop: Recent advances in proso millet's transition to a food crop

Across the globe, strategies to adapt food production to a changing climate as well as to unforeseen events (such as a pandemic) are needed, for example, if farmers miss planting times due to abnormal weather patterns or harvests are lost. Such food security considerations represent reasons for why proso millet deserves a more prominent place at the table. It has one of the shortest growing seasons and water requirements among cereals and is already grown in rotation with other crops, for example, in the American Midwest. Yet, most consumers in the Western world are unfamiliar with it, which limits its market potential. Introducing proso millet to consumers requires development of products with acceptable textural and sensory attributes as well as convincing selling points. These can be found in its nutritional profile, as it is a gluten-free "ancient" grain and millet-based products frequently have low glycemic indices. This review presents a synthesis of recent studies that utilized processing strategies to advance proso millet functionality. Results are put into the context of the most frequently addressed compositional and functional attributes, organized in clusters. Diversity across varieties in amylose to amylopectin ratios presents an opportunity to utilize proso millet for foods with specific pasting requirements, as in bread versus pasta. Hydrothermal or pressure treatments may further adapt its functionality for baked goods. Bitterness remains an unsolved issue, even when decorticated material is used. In addition, heating dramatically lowers in vitro protein digestibility, whereas starch digestibility appears to be matrix dependent (more than raw material dependent).

Gluten-Free Brewing: Issues and Perspectives

Celiac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Currently, it affects around 1% of world population, but it is constantly growing. Celiac patients have to follow a strict gluten-free (GF) diet. Beer is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, but it is not safe for people with CD. It has a gluten content usually above the safe threshold (20 ppm), determined by the official method for hydrolyzed foods (R5-competitive-ELISA). The demand on the market for GF beers is increasingly growing. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of different strategies to produce GF beer, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of each approach and taking into account technological and sensory issues. GF cereals or pseudocereals have poor brewing attitudes (if used as main raw material) and give the beer unusual flavour. Instead, enzymatic treatments allow traditional brewing process followed by gluten content reduction. A survey on 185 GF-producing breweries (both industrial and craft) from all over the world have been considered to assess which approach is most used. Beers brewed with GF cereals and pseudocereals (used in well-balanced proportions) are more common than gluten-removed (GR) beers, obtained by enzymatic treatment.

Effect of germination temperatures on proteolysis of the gluten-free grains sorghum and millet during malting and mashing

Our study showed that sorghum and millet followed a similar pattern of changes when they were malted under similar conditions. When the malt from these cereals was mashed, both cereal types produced wide spectra of substrates (sugars and amino acids) that are required for yeast fermentation when malted at either lower or higher temperatures. At the germination temperatures of 20, 25, and 30 °C used in malting both cereal types, production of reducing sugars and that of free amino nitrogen (FAN) were similar. This is an important quality attribute for both cereals because it implies that variation in temperature during the malting of sorghum and millet, especially when malting temperature is difficult to control, and also reflecting temperature variations, experienced in different countries, will not have an adverse effect on the production and release of amino acids and sugars required by yeast during fermentation. Such consistency in the availability of yeast food (substrates) for metabolism during fermentation when sorghum and millet are malted at various temperatures is likely to reduce processing issues when their malts are used for brewing. Although sorghum has gained wide application in the brewing industry, and has been used extensively in brewing gluten-free beer on industrial scale, this is not the case with millet. The work described here provides novel information regarding the potential of millet for brewing. When both cereals were malted, the results obtained for millet in this study followed patterns similar to those of sorghum. This suggests that millet, in terms of sugars and amino acids, can play a role similar to that of sorghum in the brewing industry. This further suggests that millet, like sorghum, would be a good raw material for brewing gluten-free beer. Inclusion of millet as a brewing raw material will increase the availability of suitable materials (raw material sustainability) for use in the production of gluten-free beer, beverages, and other products. The availability of wider range of raw materials will not only help to reduce costs of beer production, but by extension, the benefit of reduced cost of production can be gained by consumers of gluten-free beer as the product would be cheaper and more widely available.