Cold sterile filtration: A small scale filtration test and investigation of membrane plugging

Abstract

Beer brewed from 24 commercially and bag malted samples by a small scale brewing method was assessed by a micro-filtration efficiency (MFE) test designed to emulate the cold-sterile (membrane or micro-) filtration process. The level of malt derived beer components with the potential to reduce MFE, such as β-glucan, arabinoxylan, protein and polyphenol, were consistent over duplicate beer batches suggesting that beer quality was reproducible using the small scale method. The small scale MFE test was able to differentiate (P<0.001) between beer brewed from distinct malt samples in a reproducible fashion, suggesting that the test is effective in assessing beer MFE in the laboratory. Subsequently, the effects of various malt derived beer components on micro-filtration were investigated. MFE (measured as Vmax) was negatively correlated with beer arabinoxylan content (r=-0.62, P<0.01), suggesting that the arabinoxylan content of malt, and subsequently beer, may influence MFE. Total beer β-glucan was not significantly related to beer MFE (r=-0.36). However, it was likely that β-glucan molecules of high molecular weight influenced MFE more so than the total β-glucan content. Beer viscosity, which was correlated to both beer β-glucan and arabinoxylan content (r=0.86, P<0.001 and r=0.68, P<0.05, respectively), correlated with Vmax (r=-0.81, P<0.001).