Analysis of Flavours in Beer with SCION ChromSync Software
One of the most widely purchased beverages in the world is beer. With the consumer market so large, breweries are developing their products to have its own distinct flavour. It is vital that breweries test and monitor the flavour compounds during the production process to ensure that the same flavours are consistently achieved. The volatile compounds that make up the flavour composition must therefore be profiled batch to batch.
Gas chromatography (GC) is often the instrumentation of choice for the analysis of flavour active volatiles in beer. Compass Chromatography Data System (CDS) is a state of the art chromatography software platform that controls GC instruments whilst offering automated processing and reporting of results. ChromSync is an application add on specifically for the flavour and fragrance industry. ChromSync has the ability to determine the ‘fingerprint’ of flavour compounds in beer. The individual ‘fingerprints’ are then compared with a reference standard. ChromSync rapidly compares peak retention time as well as area% profiles of complex chromatograms, making processing volatile flavour profiles effortless. Additionally, ChromSync instantly confirms product batch to batch reproducibility whilst reporting any missing compounds and calculating the degrees of similarity.
This application note demonstrated the ease of using Chromsync with CompassCDS for the comparison of five beer samples analysed via headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC) with flame ionisation detection (FID).