Quantitative sensomics profiling of hop-derived bitter compounds throughout a full-scale beer manufacturing process

Although the complex taste profile of beer is well accepted to be reflected by the molecular blueprint of its sensometabolites, the knowledge available on the process-induced transformation of hop-derived phytochemicals into key sensometabolites during beer manufacturing is far from comprehensive. The objective of the present investigation was, therefore, to develop and apply a suitable HPLC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous and comprehensive quantitative monitoring of a total of 69 hop-derived sensometabolites in selected intermediary products throughout a full-scale beer manufacturing process. After data normalization, the individual sensometabolites were arranged into different clusters by means of agglomerative hierarchical analysis and visualized using a sensomics heatmap to verify the structure-specific reaction routes proposed for their formation during the beer brewing process.