Oxidative defects of BJJ beer

Details

Supervisors

Collin, Sonia ; Simon, Margaux

Faculty

Faculté des bioingénieurs

Degree label

Master de spécialisation en génie brassicole

Abstract

Throughout the production process of beer, there are many points where oxygen can make its way into the product – with results ranging from beneficial to disastrous. This work * addresses the impacts of undergoing oxidation at every step, * details the many chemical processes and compounds involved in oxidative staling of beer, * covers the methods used to measure oxygen levels in wort and beer as well as evaluating their antioxidant capacity, * reviews how to adjust the air ingress at the various stages of brewing. What follows next is an investigation into the source of the oxidative issues encountered at the Brasserie de Jandrain-Jandrenouille, where some batches appear to have products that randomly display premature staling. Several potential issues had been identified and each of them needed to be carefully considered and assessed (both theoretically and practically). In collaboration with the INBR laboratory, various experiments to scrutinize oxygen ingress at critical points of BJJ and quantify its impact have been devised and executed until we could * review all the suspected issues in order to assert which ones were in fact actual problems and which ones weren’t, * pinpoint the main root cause explaining the observed troubles, * suggest improvements to be carried out, weighing the pros and cons of each as well as their cost-effectiveness, * and finally attest to the benefits of their implementation.