Simultaneous determination of diethylacetal and acetaldehyde during beer fermentation and storage process

Acetaldehyde is an important flavor component in beer which is possibly carcinogenic to humans. Owing to the limitations of present detection methods, only free-state acetaldehyde in beers has been focused on, while acetal in beers has hardly been reported so far.

A sensitive headspace gas chromatography method was developed for the determination of diethylacetal and acetaldehyde in beer. The column DB-23 was chosen with a total run time of 22.5 min. The optimal addition amount of NaCl, equilibrium temperature and equilibrium time were 2.0 g, 70 °C and 30 min respectively. For both diethylacetal and acetaldehyde analyses, the limit of detection was 0.005 mg L^-1 with relative standard deviation < 5.5%. The recoveries of acetaldehyde and diethylacetal were 95-110 and 95-115% respectively. The diethylacetal and acetaldehyde average contents in 24 beer products were 11.83 and 4.36 mg L^-1 respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient between diethylacetal and acetaldehyde was the highest (0.963). Both diethylacetal and acetaldehyde contents increased to a peak value after fermentation for 3 days and then decreased to a lower value. During both normal and forced aging storage, the diethylacetal content decreased and the acetaldehyde content increased gradually over time. When beers were forced aged for 4 days, the increased ratio of acetaldehyde could be above 40.00%.

The newly established method can be used to assess acetaldehyde level and flavor quality in beer more scientifically. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.