AB71410-EN-BEER-Compendium-0716S.pdf

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Overview:
In the malting and brewing process used for beer production, one important analyte is
beta-glucan (β-glucan). It is important to determine the concentration of β-glucan, as
an excess may cause haze in the end product and thus impact appearance of the
beer, as well as clogging process filters during production. The application note
describes an automated novel method for analyzing β-glucans from wort and beer
samples.
Method:
The β-glucan method was validated using a Thermo Scientific™ Gallery ™ discrete
photometric analyzer. Similar results were obtained using the Thermo Scientific™
Gallery ™ Plus, Thermo Scientific™ Arena™ and Thermo Scientific™ Gallery™ Plus
Beermaster analyzers. A Beta-Glucan (High MW) test kit from Thermo Fisher Scientific
was used and provides ready-to-use non-hazardous reagents for up to 350 tests.
Conclusion:
Beer and wort samples showed excellent repeatability and reproducibility with a typical
variation of 2% or less. Total analysis time for nine samples with ten replicates, a total
of 90 results, was less than 40 minutes. In preliminary analysis of the beer and wort
samples, this method correlates well with results obtained by fluorometry using
Calcofluor fluorescence dye as recommended in EBC 8.13.2, 4.16.2, 3.10.2 and
ASBC Wort-18.
An improvement over the existing fluorometric methods, the open on-board stability of
these novel non-hazardous reagents was determined to be at least 30 days. This
study demonstrates that the novel β-glucan method is precise and a suitable
alternative method for routine use.
Rapid Determination of High Molecular Weight
Beta-Glucan Using a Photometric Method
Liisa Otama, Sari Tikanoja, Sari Hartikainen and Annu Suoniemi-Kähärä
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Vantaa, Finland
Application Summary AN 64538
AB71410-EN 0716S-B4