Unlocking the Secret of a Tasty Cold Drink

Sour beer isn't for everyone: its unique taste of acidity and tartness could excite some but turn off others. 

Initially established in European countries, brewing sour beer starts with the use of wild yeast and bacteria, a practice drastically different from the making of conventional beer. Most beers are brewed using a selected breed of yeast in a clean environment that has been thoroughly cleaned and maintained to keep away other microbes.

For this reason, the fermentation process of sour beer is quite unpredictable, making its flavors challenging to control and reproduce. A group of researchers at the University of Redlands in California set out to tackle this problem, so that brewmasters can develop a method for making consistently tasty sour beer.

Since the flavors of a beer are closely tied to its chemical composition, the team of chemists monitored the change of various aroma compounds in concentrations over time, with the help of modern analytical techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and liquid chromatography. 

This first-ever analytical study on sour beer was presented during the American Chemical Society's Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo in August.

Source: ACS via Youtube