Cambridge Prize Lecture Biochemical Approaches to Beer Quality

New techniques, approaches and concepts have been applied to the study of aspects of beer quality: colour, alcohol content, haze, foam and flavour. Particular emphasis is placed upon the methodology of alcohol determination; β-glucan, its role in restricting the recovery of fermentable sugars and how it can be dealt with; pseudo-hazes; foam proteins; dimethyl sulphide; and the role of radical forms of oxygen in causing flavour deterioration. A new nomenclature for describing the foaming properties of polypeptides is described and attention is drawn to the influence which methods for protein determination can have on results of foam studies.