Net effect of wort osmotic pressure on fermentation course, yeast vitality, beer flavor, and haze

Evaluation of suitability and detection range of fluorescent dye-loaded nanoliposomes for sensitive and rapid sensing of wide ranging osmolarities

Measurement of osmolarity is critical for optimizing bioprocesses including antibody production and detecting pathologies. Thus, rapid, sensitive, and in situ sensing of osmolarity is desirable. This study aims to develop and assess the suitability of calcein- and sulforhodamine-loaded nanoliposomes for ratiometric sensing of osmolarity by fluorescence spectroscopy and evaluate the range of detection. The detection is based on concentration-dependent self-quenching of calcein fluorescence (sensor dye at 6-15 mM) and concentration-independent fluorescence of sulforhodamine (reference dye) due to osmotic shrinkage of the nanoliposomes when exposed to hyperosmotic solutions. Using mathematical modeling, 6 mM calcein loading was found to be optimal to sense osmolarity between 300 and 3000 mOsM. Calcein (6 mM)- and sulforhodamine (2 mM)-loaded nanoliposomes were produced by thin-film hydration and serial extrusion. The nanoliposomes were unilamellar, spherical (108 ± 9 nm), and uniform in size (polydispersity index [PDI] 0.12 ± 0.04). Their shrinkage induced by exposure to hyperosmotic solutions led to rapid self-quenching of calcein fluorescence (F_Green), but no effect on sulforhodamine fluorescence (F_Red) was observed. F_Green/F_Red decreased linearly with increasing osmolarity, obeying Boyle van't Hoff's relationship, thus proving that the nanoliposomes are osmosensitive. A calibration curve was generated to compute osmolarity based on F_Green/F_Red measurements. As a proof-of-concept, dynamic changes in osmolarity in a yeast-based fermentation process was demonstrated. Thus, the nanoliposomes have great potential as sensors to rapidly and sensitively measure wide-ranging osmolarities.

Prediction of flavor and retention index for compounds in beer depending on molecular structure using a machine learning method

In order to make a preliminary prediction of flavor and retention index (RI) for compounds in beer, this work applied the machine learning method to modeling depending on molecular structure. Towards this goal, the flavor compounds in beer from existing literature were collected. The database was classified into four groups as aromatic, bitter, sulfury, and others. The RI values on a non-polar SE-30 column and a polar Carbowax 20M column from the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) were investigated. The structures were converted to molecular descriptors calculated by molecular operating environment (MOE), ChemoPy and Mordred, respectively. By combining the pretreatment of the descriptors, machine learning models, including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and k-nearest neighbour (kNN) were utilized for beer flavor models. Principal component regression (PCR), random forest regression (RFR) and partial least squares (PLS) regression were employed to predict the RI. The accuracy of the test set was obtained by SVM, RF, and kNN. Among them, the combination of descriptors calculated by Mordred and RF model afforded the highest accuracy of 0.686. R 2 of the optimal regression model achieved 0.96. The results indicated that the models can be used to predict the flavor of a specific compound in beer and its RI value.

Packing a punch: understanding how flavours are produced in lager fermentations

Beer is one of the most popular beverages in the world and it has an irreplaceable place in culture. Although invented later than ale, lager beers dominate the current market. Many factors relating to the appearance (colour, clarity and foam stability) and sensory characters (flavour, taste and aroma) of beer, and other psychological determinants affect consumers' perception of the product and defines its drinkability. This review takes a wholistic approach to scrutinise flavour generation in the brewing process, focusing particularly on the contribution of the raw ingredients and the yeasts to the final flavour profiles of lager beers. In addition, we examine current developments to improve lager beer flavour profiles for the modern consumers.

Unraveling Brazilian bioethanol yeasts as novel starters for high-gravity brewing

High-gravity (HG) brewing has broader application to succeed on beer differentiation and production optimization. However, such process imposes a handicap to yeasts, which must be able to deal with stressful conditions in fermentation. In this work, we assessed different physiological traits of 24 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from Brazilian bioethanol distilleries for the selection of novel starters for HG brewing. Five yeast strains were selected with ability to overcome different stressors under HG beer fermentation, showing high fermentability rates, resilience to ethanol stress, low production of foam and hydrogen sulfide, as well as similar flocculation rates to brewer's yeasts. After five fermentation recycles, most strains sustained a viability rate higher than 90% and were able to efficiently accumulate trehalose and glycogen, besides presenting no detectable petite mutants at the final stage. In the sensory analysis, the beers obtained from the five selected strains showed greater aromatic complexity, with predominance of 'spicy', 'dried' and 'fresh fruits' descriptors. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the potential of yeast strains from Brazilian bioethanol process to produce distinctive specialty beers, aside from proposing an effective selection methodology based on relevant physiological attributes for HG brewing process.

Simultaneous determination of diethylacetal and acetaldehyde during beer fermentation and storage process

BACKGROUND

Acetaldehyde is an important flavor component in beer which is possibly carcinogenic to humans. Owing to the limitations of present detection methods, only free-state acetaldehyde in beers has been focused on, while acetal in beers has hardly been reported so far.

RESULTS

A sensitive headspace gas chromatography method was developed for the determination of diethylacetal and acetaldehyde in beer. The column DB-23 was chosen with a total run time of 22.5 min. The optimal addition amount of NaCl, equilibrium temperature and equilibrium time were 2.0 g, 70 °C and 30 min respectively. For both diethylacetal and acetaldehyde analyses, the limit of detection was 0.005 mg L^-1 with relative standard deviation < 5.5%. The recoveries of acetaldehyde and diethylacetal were 95-110 and 95-115% respectively. The diethylacetal and acetaldehyde average contents in 24 beer products were 11.83 and 4.36 mg L^-1 respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient between diethylacetal and acetaldehyde was the highest (0.963). Both diethylacetal and acetaldehyde contents increased to a peak value after fermentation for 3 days and then decreased to a lower value. During both normal and forced aging storage, the diethylacetal content decreased and the acetaldehyde content increased gradually over time. When beers were forced aged for 4 days, the increased ratio of acetaldehyde could be above 40.00%.

CONCLUSION

The newly established method can be used to assess acetaldehyde level and flavor quality in beer more scientifically. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Genome Sequence of the Lager-Brewing Yeast Saccharomyces sp. Strain M14, Used in the High-Gravity Brewing Industry in China

Lager-brewing yeasts are mainly used for the production of lager beers. Illumina and PacBio-based sequence analyses revealed an approximate genome size of 22.8 Mb, with a GC content of 38.98%, for the Chinese lager-brewing yeast Saccharomyces sp. strain M14. Based on ab initio prediction, 9,970 coding genes were annotated.

Optimization of Main Fermentation of High-Gravity Wort

The mathematical model has been developed to calculate the content of higher alcohols and esters depending on wort initial concentration and fermentation temperature. The process was optimized in accordance with the developed model. To obtain high-quality beer via high-gravity brewing technology the wort concentration was found to be 14-15 % relative to dry matter and main fermentation temperature of 284–285 K.

Ageing vessel configuration for continuous redox potential-controlled very-high-gravity fermentation

The development of continuous very-high-gravity (VHG) fermentation is hindered by ineffective glucose uptake in order to result in zero discharge in the effluent stream. To overcome the problem, we proposed a continuous redox potential-controlled fermentation configuration, consisting of a Chemostat vessel connected with two ageing vessels installed in parallel, and the relevant design criteria are also specified. The Chemostat vessel is subjected to redox potential control to maintain yeast viability, and the ageing vessels are used to completely utilize glucose before discharging to next process unit. Two ageing vessels are scheduled alternatively, resulting in continuously-like operation. The size of ageing vessel is governed by the Chemostat size, dilution rate and filling time. The guideline to choose proper dilution rate is provided and the selection criterion of the proposed continuous configuration over batch fermentation is derived. The excess ethanol produced by the proposed continuous configuration over batch fermenter is quantified. As an illustration, a bio-ethanol plant is typically operated 8000 h per annum and the downtime between batches is 6h. Given that the fermenter size of 100 m(3) for both batch fermenter and Chemostat vessel, and glucose fed at 300 g/l, if the proposed continuous redox potential-controlled fermentation configuration (operated at 0.028 h(-1) and controlled at -50 mV) is selected, it will take 191 h for this configuration to outperform the batch counterpart, and the excess amount of ethanol being produced will be 1142 t.

Extra-oral halitosis: an overview

Halitosis can be subdivided into intra-oral and extra-oral halitosis, depending on the place where it originates. Most reports now agree that the most frequent sources of halitosis exist within the oral cavity and include bacterial reservoirs such as the dorsum of the tongue, saliva and periodontal pockets, where anaerobic bacteria degrade sulfur-containing amino acids to produce the foul smelling volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), especially hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) and methyl mercaptan (CH(3)SH). Tongue coating is considered to be the most important source of VSCs. Oral malodor can now be treated effectively. Special attention in this overview is given to extra-oral halitosis. Extra-oral halitosis can be subdivided into non-blood-borne halitosis, such as halitosis from the upper respiratory tract including the nose and from the lower respiratory tract, and blood-borne halitosis. The majority of patients with extra-oral halitosis have blood-borne halitosis. Blood-borne halitosis is also frequently caused by odorous VSCs, in particular dimethyl sulfide (CH3SCH3). Extra-oral halitosis, covering about 5-10% of all cases of halitosis, might be a manifestation of a serious disease for which treatment is much more complicated than for intra-oral halitosis. It is therefore of utmost importance to differentiate between intra-oral and extra-oral halitosis. Differences between intra-oral and extra-oral halitosis are discussed extensively. The importance of applying odor characterization of various odorants in halitosis research is also highlighted in this article. The use of the odor index, odor threshold values and simulation of bad breath samples is explained.