Sensory Characterization of Commercial Lager Beers and Their Correlations with Iso-α-Acid Concentrations

Carlos A. Blanco^1, , Dieudonné Nimubona¹, Encarnación Fernández-Fernández¹ and Inmaculada Álvarez²

¹Dpto. Ingeniería Agrícola y Forestal (Área de Tecnología de los Alimentos) Universidad de Valladolid. E.T.S. Ingenierías Agrarias. Avda. Madrid 44. 34004 Palencia, Spain

²Dpto. Tecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, C/ Camino de Vera s/n, 46023 Valencia, Spain

Cite this paper:
Carlos A. Blanco, Dieudonné Nimubona, Encarnación Fernández-Fernández and Inmaculada Álvarez. Sensory Characterization of Commercial Lager Beers and Their Correlations with Iso-α-Acid Concentrations. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2015; 3(1):1-8. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-3-1-1

Abstract

A total of 40 commercial lager beers (6 dark, 28 pale and 6 alcohol free) were analysed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and evaluated by a descriptive sensorial panel. Discriminant Analysis was applied to 15 sensory descriptors to obtain a classification by types of beer. Cluster Analysis identified 4 clusters grouping the 15 sensory descriptors. The Correlation Matrix confirmed a correlation between them and the subsequent Principal Component Analysis. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to eliminate the less significant descriptors, leading to 100% of the samples being correctly classified with a reduced number of variables (colour intensity, smell of caramel, smell of toasted, persistence and viscosity). The analysis of the correlations between iso-α-acid concentrations and sensory descriptors shows a good relationship with bitter taste. Thus, HPLC data can be used for predicting lager beer bitterness through the mathematical correlation developed in this paper.

Keywords:
lagerbeer iso-α-acids sensory descriptors bitterness correlation

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