Development of Routine Investigational Tools for the Study of Sulphury Flavours in Beer

A number of investigational tools are described, for characterising sulphury flavours in beer; these assist in the collection of both sensory and analytical data. A short format has been devised for describing the sulphury characteristics of beer flavour. Methods of data processing which determine whether or not a panel has discriminated between two or more beers, when using descriptive flavour analysis, are outlined. An analytical method has been devised for detecting and quantifying certain flavour-active organosulphur volatiles in beer. The technique, which is based on a purge/trap/desorb procedure, requires minimal modification of existing capillary GC equipment.