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Identification of volatile compounds in chocolate malt

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Abstract

Chocolate malt is widely used in craft beer production to provide aroma and color. Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry technology (HS-SPME–GC–MS) was employed for the determination of volatiles in ten kinds of chocolate malt. 45 volatile compounds were perceived, including 12 nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, 10 aldehydes, 6 furans, 5 phenols, 5 acids, 5 phenols, 3 alcohols, and 2 ketones. In addition, volatiles of pilsner malt, caramel malt, crystal malt, and coffee malt were investigated for comparison. Results revealed that there were 31 volatile compounds existed in all 14 samples. According to the principal component analysis (PCA), 26 volatiles were associated with the aroma of chocolate malt. Partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was also performed and found that 14 volatiles with variable importance in the projection (VIP) > 1 could be used as key volatile compounds to distinguish chocolate malt. Finally, the aroma attributes for chocolate malt were described as smoky and burnt through sensory evaluation.

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Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32101899), and the “Lvyang Jinfeng” plan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225127, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Zhengfei Yang, Yirong Wang, Yongqi Yin, Weiming Fang & Shuo Wang

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  1. Zhengfei Yang
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  2. Yirong Wang
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  3. Yongqi Yin
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Correspondence to Zhengfei Yang, Weiming Fang or Shuo Wang.

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Yang, Z., Wang, Y., Yin, Y. et al. Identification of volatile compounds in chocolate malt. Eur Food Res Technol 249, 631–639 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-022-04158-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-022-04158-w

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