The typical and distinctive sensory characters of craft beer are crucial in its specificity and overall quality and allow craft brewers to compete with massmarket breweries. The various aroma compounds representing different beer styles come from a harmonic balance of raw materials such as barley, malt, hops and yeasts. The aim of this project is the optimization of new strategies for the production of a sustainable beer of Mediterranean style. Four research units (RUs) will collaborate closely to reach the proposed objectives. These are: 1) Characterization and selection of local barley and hop varieties well adapted to Mediterranean environment and resistant or tolerant to pest and diseases. Further, hop varieties as well as aromatic plants and fruits (Citrus, chestnuts and myrtle)will be evaluated for their metabolic interactions and antimicrobial effects towards fermenting yeasts. The craft beers obtained will be described by sensorial and analytical analyses? 2) Selection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nonSaccharomyces starter strains strains able to carry out mixed fermentations for beer production. The yeasts will be isolated and characterized from a technological and metabolic point of view. 3) Valorization of Brewer's Spent Grain (BSG) by obtaining organic composts with similar or better productivity and quality than that obtained with usual materials. Moreover, a BSGderived, microorganismsenriched compost will be defined and proposed as a highquality amendant useful to improve biodiversity and biological fertility of soil, soil carbon sink (and consequently the brewing carbon footprint), the improvement of soil structure and water holding capacity, the protection of plants from biotic and abiotic stress. The application potentialities and the impact of the project will regard the conservation and exploitation of the microbial and vegetal biodiversity. The use of local yeasts, barley, hop and Mediterranean essences will be functional to the preparation of collections of microbial resources of indigenous species suitable for brewing. The use of mixed starter with Saccharomyces and nonSaccharomyces(NC)yeasts in brewing can open an innovative brewing process in both primary fermentation and maturation phase. The use of NC yeasts with flavor precursor molecules of hop will expand the range of possibilities for beer bioflavouring. The use of BSG is a way to convert a waste in a source, and a new marketing opportunity could be open in the field of soil amendment. The proposed new strategies will allow to produce a sustainable beer, limiting the transport of these raw materials thus reducing the production of CO2. In addition, promotion of local products is a good practice to keep active the human presence in agriculture, promoting the management of water and reduction of depopulation. Finally, the development of the activities and the reaching of the proposed aims will contribute to the increase of employment and social stability.
Innovative strategies to produce sustainable craft beer with Mediterranean taste
Niccolò Pampuro;Eugenio Cavallo
2015
Abstract
The typical and distinctive sensory characters of craft beer are crucial in its specificity and overall quality and allow craft brewers to compete with massmarket breweries. The various aroma compounds representing different beer styles come from a harmonic balance of raw materials such as barley, malt, hops and yeasts. The aim of this project is the optimization of new strategies for the production of a sustainable beer of Mediterranean style. Four research units (RUs) will collaborate closely to reach the proposed objectives. These are: 1) Characterization and selection of local barley and hop varieties well adapted to Mediterranean environment and resistant or tolerant to pest and diseases. Further, hop varieties as well as aromatic plants and fruits (Citrus, chestnuts and myrtle)will be evaluated for their metabolic interactions and antimicrobial effects towards fermenting yeasts. The craft beers obtained will be described by sensorial and analytical analyses? 2) Selection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nonSaccharomyces starter strains strains able to carry out mixed fermentations for beer production. The yeasts will be isolated and characterized from a technological and metabolic point of view. 3) Valorization of Brewer's Spent Grain (BSG) by obtaining organic composts with similar or better productivity and quality than that obtained with usual materials. Moreover, a BSGderived, microorganismsenriched compost will be defined and proposed as a highquality amendant useful to improve biodiversity and biological fertility of soil, soil carbon sink (and consequently the brewing carbon footprint), the improvement of soil structure and water holding capacity, the protection of plants from biotic and abiotic stress. The application potentialities and the impact of the project will regard the conservation and exploitation of the microbial and vegetal biodiversity. The use of local yeasts, barley, hop and Mediterranean essences will be functional to the preparation of collections of microbial resources of indigenous species suitable for brewing. The use of mixed starter with Saccharomyces and nonSaccharomyces(NC)yeasts in brewing can open an innovative brewing process in both primary fermentation and maturation phase. The use of NC yeasts with flavor precursor molecules of hop will expand the range of possibilities for beer bioflavouring. The use of BSG is a way to convert a waste in a source, and a new marketing opportunity could be open in the field of soil amendment. The proposed new strategies will allow to produce a sustainable beer, limiting the transport of these raw materials thus reducing the production of CO2. In addition, promotion of local products is a good practice to keep active the human presence in agriculture, promoting the management of water and reduction of depopulation. Finally, the development of the activities and the reaching of the proposed aims will contribute to the increase of employment and social stability.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
