Sensomic comparison of lager beers fermented by selected Saccharomyces pastorianus yeast strains

Selection of the appropriate yeast strain is one of the most crucial steps in a brewery. Traditionally, yeast strain's abilities during beer fermentation are described according to brewer's experiences. Hence, these descriptions could be inaccurate and strictly based on sensory experiences. In this study, lager beers fermented by four traditional bottom-fermented yeast strains were characterized in detail by sensomic approach. The obtained results revealed that yeast strains can influence most of the sensory-related components in beer, not only esters and higher alcohols, but also carbonyls, amino acids, saccharides, fatty acids, heterocyclic compounds, hop oils, and other hop-related components. By comparison of chemical and sensory characteristics of each studied beer, the theoretical importance of sensory interactions on beer flavor perception was also revealed as the general conception that the beers with similar flavors have also similar chemical profiles (and vice versa) was seemed as not valid.