Mass Spectrometry and Brewing Beer – #365papers – 2017 – 4

#365papers for January 4, 2017

Vivian, Aoyagui, de Oliveira, and Catharino, 2016, Mass spectrometry for the characterization of brewing process: Food Research International, v. 89, p. 281-288.

What’s it about?

This paper presents a means by which beer, in various stages of its production, can be easily tested for off-flavors and other faults without having to wait for the final product to ferment and carbonate.

Why does it matter?

Making beer is a time consuming and expensive process. With this method, bad batches of beer can be identified before they’ve occupied fermenters and bright tanks for days or weeks, thus providing breweries a change to dispose of bad batches and start new ones without losing weeks of time waiting for a final product.

Why did I read this?

This paper discusses two things near and dear to me: mass spectrometry and brewing beer. I don’t actually do this type of mass spectrometry, but I understand it and think this application is really cool!