Rapid determination of bitterness in beer using fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometrics

Abstract

Two fluorescence spectroscopic methods with the aim to develop a fast quantitative determination of bitterness in beer were tested. The first method was based on autofluorescence of the diluted and degassed beer samples without any further processing. A total of 21 dark and light beer samples were analyzed and multivariate Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression models to bitterness in form of international bitter units (IBU) were performed. A prediction error in the form of Root Mean Square Error of Cross-Validation (RMSECV) of 2.77 IBU was obtained using six PLS components. Focusing only on the light beer samples the RMSECV was reduced to 1.81 IBU. The second method developed was based on addition of europium to induce delayed fluorescence signals in the beer samples. PLS models yielded an RMSECV of 2.65 IBU for all beers, while a model on the light beer samples gave an RMSECV of 1.75 IBU. The obtained prediction errors were compared to the errors given in the literature for the traditional extraction method of determining IBU. © 2005 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling.