Valorisation of hop leaves for their bioactive compounds: Identification and quantification of phenolics across different varieties, crop years and stages of development.

Hop leaves, a by-product from hop cone harvesting, contain phenolic compounds of potential value for food or beverage applications. However, the abundant phenolics in hop leaves remain largely unquantified. This study quantified phenolics in hop leaves over two crop years, for three commercially significant varieties, at different developmental stages post-flowering.

Modelling flavour formation in roasted malt substrates under controlled conditions of time and temperature.

Drum roasted products are used to impart colour, flavour and mouthfeel to beers. Here we designed a laboratory-scale roaster (100 g batch size) capable of precise time-temperature control and investigated the impacts of time, temperature and roasting substrate (barley, pale malt or germinated green malt) on formation of 20 key odour active aroma volatiles. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of flavour volatile data across 37 laboratory roasted and 6 commercial roasted products generated a product flavour space depicting the relationship between roasting conditions and concentrations of these 20 compounds.

Perceived bitterness character of beer in relation to hop variety and the impact of hop aroma.

The impact of hop variety and hop aroma on perceived beer bitterness intensity and character was investigated using analytical and sensory methods. Beers made from malt extract were hopped with 3 distinctive hop varieties (Hersbrucker, East Kent Goldings, Zeus) to achieve equi-bitter levels. A trained sensory panel determined the bitterness character profile of each singly-hopped beer using a novel lexicon.

Mashing with unmalted sorghum using a novel low temperature enzyme system: Impacts of sorghum grain composition and microstructure.

Brewing lager beers from unmalted sorghum traditionally requires the use of high temperature mashing and exogenous enzymes to ensure adequate starch conversion. Here, a novel low-temperature mashing system is compared to a more traditional mash in terms of the wort quality produced (laboratory scale) from five unmalted sorghums (2 brewing and 3 non-brewing varieties). The low temperature mash generated worts of comparable quality to those resulting from a traditional energy intensive mash protocol.

The impact of hop bitter acid and polyphenol profiles on the perceived bitterness of beer.

Thirty-four commercial lager beers were analysed for their hop bitter acid, phenolic acid and polyphenol contents. Based on analytical data, it was evident that the beers had been produced using a range of different raw materials and hopping practices. Principal Components Analysis was used to select a sub-set of 10 beers that contained diverse concentrations of the analysed bitter compounds.