Flavour Science

This work describes an untargeted GC-MS methodology for monitoring the compositional changes occurring during forced beer aging (45°C during 18 days). Faster chromatographic runs were used (rapid GC-MS), allowing a three-fold reduction of the chromatographic time, with minimal loss of information. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the rapid GC-MS data (rGC-MS/PCA) enabling the main profile changes occurring during the process to be assessed, unveiling the well-known aging markers 5-hydroxymethylfufural (5-HMF), diethyl succinate furfural, and phenylacetaldehyde, as well as other newly detected compounds related to beer aging. In addition, data fusion between GC-MS and 1H NMR spectroscopy was performed, enabling a more comprehensive overview of the beer aging process, in a wider analytical detection range.