Fatty Acids in Beer : Qualitative analysis of fatty acid profile from the brewing process at Åbro Bryggeri

Beer is a fermented alcoholic beverage that spans back to over 5000 years years ago and is consumed all over the world. Beer is usually made from malted barley but it can also be made from different cereals and starches. Beer contains both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (FA) which are derived from the malt that is used. Unsaturated fatty acids (FA) such as linoleic and linolenic acid are sensitive to oxidation which can affect foam, smell and taste of a beer. The purpose of this study was to extract and analyse FA profile of three different types of beer, Bryggmästaren Bästa Ekologiska, 5,2:an and Premium Gold to assess the durability of these types of beer. Beer, fermented solution, malt and wort was provided by Åbro Bryggeri. Lipid extraction was performed on the samples, lipids were extracted with soxtec for malted product and liquid-liquid extraction for beer, fermented solution and wort. The lipids were analysed with Gas-Chromatography Flame Ion Detector. The malted products contained unsaturated FA’s where linoleic acid was the dominating FA while the beers, fermented solutions and worts contained both unsaturated FAs and saturated FAs. The unsaturated FA were erucic acid while the saturated FAs were lauric acid, myristic acid and palmitic acid. The amount of FA’s detected in the beer was extremely low which is due to the method used as some fat might have been lost out during the liquid-liquid extraction or during an evaporation step due to a leakage in the selected rotary evaporation system. The conclusion of this study was that although fatty acids were present in malt and liquids from the brewing process, the amount was too low to cause risk of either an altered taste of the beer or increased risk of oxidation of unsaturated FAs. However, due to a limitation of data from extracted- and analysed samples, this reduces the outcome of this work and a quantitative study is needed in order to determine more exact FA profiles from the analysed samples