Exploration of high‐gravity fermentation to improve lactic acid bacteria performance and consumer's acceptance of malt wort‐fermented beverages

Summary Lactic acid bacteria ( LAB ) fermentation performance is essential for aroma metabolites formation and product flavour quality. Hence, this study appraises high‐gravity malt wort fermentation ( HGF ) by three LAB strains to improve the fermentation performance and consumer's acceptance of lactic acid‐fermented malt‐based beverages ( LAFMB ). HGF at 20% (w/w) provided higher amino acid content and buffering capacity that allowed greater cell development, viable cell count and sugar utilisation. Moreover, the pH change was lesser although marked lactic acid accumulation. It is noteworthy that HGF significantly incremented the content of higher alcohols (+0 – 161%), 2‐phenylethanol (+11–147%), acetaldehyde (+27–44%) and β‐damascenone (+25 – 66%) comparing to low‐gravity malt wort at 12%. Thus, HG ‐fermented beverages were significantly preferred with greater hedonic scores (4.6 ± 2.1). Our results indicate that HGF is a valuable strategy for improving LAB fermentation performance in malt wort, which in turn increases key aroma compound content resulting in enhanced acceptance of LAFMB .