Beer obtaining using banana as an adjunct and a flavouring agent

Author(s)

Giovani Brandão Mafra de Carvalho

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Lorena.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL/ASDI)
• Defense date: 2009-07-20

Examining board members

João Batista de Almeida e Silva; Maria das Gracas de Almeida Felipe; Alicia de Francisco; Urgel de Almeida Lima; Narendra Narain

• Advisor: João Batista de Almeida e Silva

Abstract

In the past years, two tendencies have been revealed in the universe of brewing: beer production using concentrated wort and its elaboration using special adjunct, which might supply or not a special flavour to the beer. Aiming to increase the process productivity along with decreasing the necessity of further production investments, some breweries have adapted to increase the initial fermentation extract concentration to values superior to the traditional ones (10-15 oP). The elaboration of beer using special adjunct is considered a solution to turn cheap beer production by not only by substituting part of the malt but also in adding characteristic sensorial attributes in the obtained products. Banana is constituted of raw materials suitable for alcoholic fermentation for being rich in carbohydrates and minerals and present law acidity. The principal objective of this research is to utilize the banana as an adjunct for malt and also as a natural and a tenuous flavouring agent for the obtained beer. The quantification of the carbohydrates present in the banana prata in different maturation grade, has revealed that the condition of \"very mature\" represented the highest content in total soluble carbohydrates (15.65%) and the lowest content in starch (0.48%). After the quantification stage of the carbohydrates, a study was done on the hot aqueous extraction of the soluble solids found in the banana using the response-surface method obtained by a complete 22 factorial design. The obtained mathematical empirical quadratic model was (Y = 5.58 + 1.25 X1 - 0.26 X2 - 0.37 X22). The values of the optimized extraction (Y) was 38.5 g of banana pulp (X1) and an extraction time of 39.7 minutes. It was done a study on the fermentation wort with banana adjunct using a factorial design 22, in the micro-brewery pilot plant located in the EEL - USP, at different concentrations and process temperatures. It was observed that at 12 0P and at 15 0C, it was obtained a Qp of 0.58 g/L.h in 72 h of fermentation and only 6.07 % of the sugar metabolized by the alcoholic-yeast was deviated for the production of secondary products, which guaranteed a real Yp/s of 0.48 g/g. Using these conditions in study, it was investigated the kinetic behavior of the alcoholic-yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae 308 of law fermentation (lager type) in these wort using banana, of conventional gravity. It can be observed that the maximum value of ?x (0.114 h-1) was achieved with fermentation at 12 0P and 150C. The maximum values of ?s and ?p (1.128 e 0.585 g/g.h, respectively) was obtained at fermentation of 15 0P and 15 0C. It was also done studies with the objective of increasing the volumetric productivity of ethanol in worts with banana at high gravity. For this reason, it was done several fermentations with the addition of different nutrients, in mini-bioreactors cylindrical-conical de 0.9 L from UMinho-Portugal. It was verified that the addition of MgSO4 was statistically significant for the increase in Qp. It was also verified that the best value of Qp (0.68 g.L/h) was achieved in 64 h of fermentation after being supplemented with 420 mg/L of MgSO4. It was also done a physical-chemical characterization of the beer obtained from the reproduction of the optimized experiment obtained using the cylindrical-conical bioreactor de 0.9 L from UMinho- Portugal in the bioreactor of 180 L of working volume located in the EEL - USP, verifying that the beer with banana (4.8 % v/v) have presented a high concentrations of potassium (600.68 mg/L) and isomile acetate (1.20 mg/L). It was done a sensorial evaluation of the elaborated beer in the pilot-plant in the USP, comparing it with the other beers found in the Brazilian market. It was observed that in relation to the preference test, beers with banana were statistically preferred in relation to the other samples. Acceptance tests demonstrated that there has been no significant difference (p>= 0.05) in relation to the grade of acceptance between the products corresponding to the samples taken from the optimized experiments and the samples taken from the market. In other words, the samples with banana were acceptable by the consumer as much as the samples taken from common beers found in the market. Finally, it was done a preliminary economical evaluation of the process, considering as production capacity the value of 875 L/month of beer with banana. It was calculated the initial cost of the process was of 204.76% superior than the commercial draft beer. On the other hand, the direct cost of production of this draft beer was of R$ 0.94/L against R$ 1.10/L of draft beer made from pure malt using the same process conditions. (AU)