Food Chemistry

904 20 Alcoholic Beverages

7–8%; malt beer (caramel beer), a dark, sweet
and slightly hopflavored full beer; the bitter beers
such as those from Cologne or Duesseldorf (Alt-
bier) which are strongly hop-flavored full beers;
top fermented plain beers (Jungbier or Frischbier)
with a low stemwort content and often artificially
sweetened; Braunschweig’s mumme, an unfer-
mented, non-hop flavored malt extract, hence
not a true beer or a beer-like beverage. English
beers have a stemwort content up to 11–13%.
Stout is a very darkly colored and alcohol-rich
beer made from concentrated boiled wort (up to
25% stemwort; alcohol content> 6 .5%). Milder
varieties of stout are known as Porter beer.
Pale ale is strongly hopped light beer, whereas
mild ale is mildly hopped dark beer. Incorpora-
tion of ginger root essence into these beers yields
ginger-flavored ale.
Top fermented beers from Belgium, which are
stored for a longer time, are called Lambic and
Faro beers.

20.1.8.2 Bottom Fermented Beers

These beers show a significantly increased stor-
age stability and are brewed as light, mildly col-
ored or dark beers.
Pilsener beer, an example of a light colored beer,
is typically hop flavored, containing 11.8–12.7%
stemwort. In contrast, Dortmunder-type beer is
made from a more concentrated wort which is
fermented longer and thereby has a higher alco-
hol content. Lager beer (North German Lager)
is similar to Dortmunder in hop flavoring, while
the stemwort content is close to a Pilsener beer.
Munich beers are dark, lightly hop flavored and
contain 0.5–2% colored malt and often a little
caramel malt. They taste sweet, have a typical

malt aromatic flavor, and are fermented with
a stemwort content of 11–14%. Beers with a high
content of extract are designated as export beers.
Traditional dark beers and currently produced
special light beers, are the bock beers (Salvator,
Animator, etc.). They are also strong beers with
more than 16% stemwort. The dark Nuernberg
and Kulmbacher beers are even higher in colored
malt extracts and thereby are darker than Munich
beers. An example of mildly colored beer is the
Maerzen beer (averaging 13.8% stemwort). It is

produced from malt of Munich in which the use

of colored malt is omitted.

20.1.8.3 Diet Beers

Diet beers exhibit a high degree of fermentation

and contain almost no carbohydrates, which are

a burden for diabetics. They are produced by spe-

cial fermentation processes and contain a rela-

tively high alcohol content. Subsequently, the al-

cohol level is frequently reduced to values typical

of normal beer.

20.1.8.4 Alcohol-Free Beers

In the production of alcohol-free beers, the alco-

hol content of normal beer (top or bottom fer-

mented, light or dark) is largely removed (≤ 0 .5%

by volume) by reverse osmosis (cf. 18.2.10.3) or

distillation under vacuum at ca. 40◦C. The influ-

ence on the aroma is presented in 20.1.7.8.

20.1.8.5 Export Beers

These originate from widely different kinds of

beer. They are mostly pasteurized and addition-

ally treated with flocculating or adsorption agents

(tannin, bentonite) or with proteolytic enzyme

preparations to remove most of the proteins.

The proteolytic enzymes split the large protein

molecules into soluble products. Such beers are

free of cloudiness or turbidity (chill-proofed

beers) even after prolonged transport and cold

storage.

20.1.9 Beer Flavor and Beer Defects

The taste and odor profile of a beer, including

possible aroma defects, can be described in detail

with the help of 44 terms grouped into 14 general

terms, as shown in Fig. 20.3. Apart from a great

variety of terms for odor notes, the terms bitter,

salty, metallic, and alkaline are used only for taste

and the terms sour, sweet, “body” etc. are applied

to both taste as well as odor.