The Semi-Routine Use of Capillary Gas Chromatography for Analysis of Aroma Volatiles in Beer

A system for gas chromatographic determination of beer aroma volatile compounds that uses computer analysis to estimate the contribution of the measured substances to beer flavor has been refined and improved. Improvements in sample preparation, chromatographic techniques, and available instrumentation have led to greatly increased sensitivity and resolution, and an ability to perform calculations formerly done on a large computer directly with the gas chromatograph. More than 150 compounds can now be measured compared with about 30 before. At the present level of sophistication, twenty of the peaks detected are used for routine calculation of “probable differences in flavor.”