Standardization of the brewing process, characterization of beer composition and emission of quality stamps using nuclear magnetic resonance

• Grant number: 20/00939-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: April 01, 2021
• End date: March 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Technology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Barros Mariutti
• Grantee: Ricardo Barros Mariutti
• CNAE: Atividades profissionais, científicas e técnicas não especificadas anteriormente
• Principal investigators: André Luiz Galo ; Fábio Rogério de Moraes ; Raghuvir Krishnaswamy Arni
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/06714-1 - Standardization of the brewing process, characterization of beer composition and emission of quality stamps using nuclear magnetic resonance, BP.PIPE

Abstract

The craft beer market in Brazil has been growing exponentially and is against the economic crisis that the country has been facing. In the last decade, production grew 64%, jumping from 8.2 billion to 13.4 billion liters / year and the number of breweries grew by an impressive 292%. In the last 3 years, the number of factories has doubled, reaching more than one thousand registered with the Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA). Although the stages of the brewing process are finely controlled in the biggest breweries, the leading breweries that value the quality attributes in their products still suffer from the standardization of their batches, in terms of reproducibility, since control over the production process it is much more elaborate. We are proposing an innovative strategy for standardizing the brewing process, providing services related to consultancies and issuing quality stamps that prove that beer is free from unwanted flavors (off-flavors). These unwanted flavors occur due to the presence of molecules already described in the literature and that are caused by failures during the brewing stages. We will also issue stamps that certify that the finished product is free of harmful substances used as antifreeze fluid in the factories' refrigeration system, which, although they should not have contact with beer, have recently been found atypically in lots of a brewery in Minas Gerais, causing the death of 4 people. To this end, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques will be used, implemented by a team with expertise in the area and who have direct access to the facilities of the Unesp Biomolecular Innovation Center of São José do Rio Preto-SP, which has a Bruker spectrometer 400MHz Avance III and a 600MHz Bruker Avance III spectrometer equipped with a cryostat. At the same time, the team intends to combine NMR, chromatography and spectrometry techniques to develop commercial kits used in beer sommelier courses, in addition to creating innovative, faster and cheaper methodologies for measuring alcohol content, coloring and IBU, which are present specifications on beer labels. Initially, the samples used to characterize the biomolecules will come from Cervejaria Rio Preto LTDA (Trade name: Revoluta), which will finance all the inputs used in the brewing process. Preliminary results related to the identification of 3 different molecules demonstrate the technological feasibility of this project. (AU)