Can hop terpenic volatiles have impact on beer volatile profile?

The development of new and distinctive beers is a trend that daily challenges brewers. Consumers’ engagement is related to beer aroma characteristics that are essentially associated with its volatile components. In fact, hops (one or blended hops, per beer) have been used to provide beer bitterness and/or aroma, which had led to a diversity of beer styles. Despite brewers' empirical knowledge about hops impact on beers sensory characteristics, the chemical information on this impact is restricted to few components. Thus, the main objective of this work was to disclose the relation between hop or blended hops on beer terpenic composition, using a methodology based on headspacesolid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with comprehensive gas chromatography – mass spectrometry with time-of-flight analyser (GC×GCToFMS). In this work, eight hop varieties and six beer styles were studied. A total of 102 and 72 terpenic compounds were identified, in hops and beer, respectively. There was a significant increase of new identified compounds comparing with reported data, namely: from 44% (Nugget hop) to 61% (Mosaic hop) in hops, and for beers, new identified volatiles varied between 46% (Pilsner) to 83% (Belgian dark strong ale). To disclose the relation between hop or blended hops on beer terpenic composition, a reconstruction of the beer volatile composition was performed using only hops data according to their percentage used in each beer style. A similar clustering was achieved between the beers data and the reconstructed beer volatile composition using hops data, which allows inferring that the beers terpenic profile is modulated by the terpenic composition of the respective hops. Therefore, this methodology may be further used as a tool to predict hops impact on beer sensorial characteristics (e.g. citrus, woody, or floral aromas).