Group leader: Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Neugrodda
The key areas are the design of raw materials, cultivation and process/product interactions. This includes multiple cereals and pseudo-cereals, hops and If necessary auxiliary materials. New breedings of different cereals and pseudo-cereals are evaluated with regard on their malting properties, evaluation of their suitability and the optimization of the processing for beverage production respectively. The information gathered is used to define demands set to a future oriented raw material design. The focus of this research is set onto barley used for brewing. The fundamental research is therefore focused on the chemical, physical, functional and quality-relevant properties of the raw material ingredients (starch, proteins, polyphenols) and their conversion/alteration during the malting process and the beverage production. The goal is to determine the functional and quality-influencing properties with regard to the beverage properties (richness, turbidity stability, taste stability, microbial properties, foam stability, etc.).
031B1552D_HOPTIMIZE – Genetic and environmental determinants of hop metabolite formation and their influence on the sensory quality of non‑alcoholic beers
Duration: 1 May 2025 - 30 April 2029
Project partners:
Dr. Sebastian Gresset (Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture), Dr. Heike Knörzer (Agricultural Technology Centre Augustenberg), Prof. Dr. Chris-Carolin Schön (Technical University of Munich), Dr. Johannes Stampfl (Hop Utilization Cooperative)
Funding: Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)
The HOPTIMIZE project applies genome-enabled breeding in hop (Humulus lupulus L.) to enable early prediction of yield stability under drought stress and of product-quality traits for different end uses. Beer is the best-known hop-based product, and its sensory properties are largely determined by hop bitter compounds, aroma compounds, and polyphenols. With the increasing demand for non-alcoholic beers, it is becoming increasingly important to better understand these quality-defining hop constituents and their relevance for sensory quality. At the same time, drought and heat stress can affect quality-determining hop constituents to varying degrees. However, the extent to which the resulting changes in metabolomic profiles influence the sensory quality of beer remains largely unknown.
WP2 investigates how genetic variation and drought stress during hop cultivation affect the formation of key hop constituents and to what extent these changes shape the sensory quality of the final product. Non-alcoholic beers (NABs) serve as model products. Up to 350 genotypes from different locations and treatment variants in WP1 will be characterized using modern analytical platforms (GC-MS, HPLC, NIR). Building on this, a high-throughput method for profiling relevant hop constituents will be developed. The aim is to identify compounds with pronounced genotype-by-environment interactions and to assess whether drought tolerance is associated with potential losses in brewing and product quality.
Metabolomic phenotyping will be complemented by sensory evaluation. Based on genotype data and compound profiles, the consortium will select the 200 most genetically and metabolically diverse genotypes for sensory assessment. These genotypes will be used to produce standardized dry-hopped non-alcoholic beers. For sensory evaluation, a tasting scheme based on the Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) method will be developed and applied together with the institute’s trained panel and the HVG panel. The panels were previously validated with commercial non-alcoholic beers and with preliminary non-alcoholic beers brewed from hand-harvested cones of young plants. From the second project year onwards, the established RATA method will be used to evaluate hop aroma intensity, mouthfeel, palate fullness, bitterness intensity and quality, drinkability, overall hop impression, and the general sensory quality of the non-alcoholic beers.
01IF23112N – Microscopic Method for Assessing and Reducing Microparticle Load in Mineral and Table Water and Filtered Beers
The occurrence of unwanted microparticles in food has been one of the issues causing the greatest concern among consumers for many years. Although reports on microplastics in beverages such as beer and mineral water appear regularly, the published numbers are often not easily verifiable. For affected manufacturers, responding to such particle findings in the bottled product is difficult, as detecting microplastics and distinguishing them from, for example, mineral precipitates is only possible using complex vibrational spectroscopic methods.
This project aims to develop a rapid microscopic method that enables material classification of particles in the range of 5–100 µm. This new method allows the examination of individual process steps in beverage production and bottling with regard to their respective particle input, and to evaluate measures for reducing particle contamination in bottled beverages.
Contact: https://www.lse.ls.tum.de/bgt/team/maximilian-reichenbacher/
IGF_2025-02513 – Energetic Optimization of the Pasteurization of Non-Alcoholic Beers and Beer-Mixed Beverages with Consideration of Product-Specific Matrix Effects
The consumption of non-alcoholic beers (NABs) has been steadily increasing for years. Due to their low alcohol content compared with alcoholic beers, as well as the varying extract, sugar, and hop contents depending on the production method, the microbiological stability of NABs is usually ensured by thermal stabilization, also known as pasteurization. The pasteurization formula currently used is based on empirical data collected in the 1950s. It is unknown to what extent these guideline values can be transferred to other NAB recipes and production methods, with their corresponding differences in ingredient composition (referred to as the matrix), and whether these guideline values actually represent an adequate heat treatment. As a consequence in current day-to-day practice, all NABs and non-alcoholic beer-mixed beverages (NABMBs) are significantly over-pasteurized. This is where the research project begins.
The project aims to investigate how the inactivation kinetics of beer-spoilage microorganisms in NABs differ from those in alcoholic beers, and to what extent the success of pasteurization in NABs and NABMBs is influenced by the matrix due to different recipes and production methods. The goal is to enable brewers to determine, for each product, the number of pasteurization units required to maintain microbiological stability. For the first time, the sporulation behavior of contaminants will also be examined as a function of the beverage matrix. A suitable microorganism is to be identified and established as a so-called bioindicator for assessing the effectiveness of pasteurization of NABs in industrial practice. In addition, brewers are to be provided with characteristic pasteurization curves for different NABs and NABMBs.
01IF23476 Impact of biotic and abiotic stress on starch synthesis and brewing quality in malting barley
Climate change is increasingly influencing the yield and quality of malting barley due to hot and dry periods. Starch synthesis and the resulting starch structure are particularly affected. At the same time, extreme weather events increase the dynamics and severity of cereal diseases. Abiotic and biotic stress has led to processing difficulties in recent years, such as increased gelatinization temperatures, long saccharification times, lower final fermentation levels, and, thus, economic losses for breweries. At the same time, Fusarium infections significantly reduce grain quality and contaminate the barley with harmful mycotoxins. The influence of abiotic stress and the interaction with Fusarium infections on the grain quality of barley are still largely unknown at the physiological level but are essential for the resulting malting process and malt quality.
The research project aims to investigate starch formation in malting barley under different climatic growing conditions and combined Fusarium infections of the grains. Detailed knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms of gene expression and their impact on the change in starch structure and pathogen response under simultaneous abiotic stress is to be gained. Global gene expression analysis will identify marker genes that correlate with favorable starch properties and increased disease resistance in different barley varieties under stress conditions. The results will serve as a basis for developing new solutions for processing barley batches from years with unfavorable growing conditions. The intended characterization of 30 malting barley varieties for their starch quality under abiotic stress and disease resistance validates the marker genes. It provides suitable candidates for crossing parents to create new breeding populations and variety recommendations for malting barley varieties already available on the market.
01IF22515N – Methode development for fast prediction of starch-related processing issues and adaptation of mashing parameters for malts with unfavourable starch properties
The processability of the raw materials is of fundamental importance for beer production to ensure consistent process and product quality. A central process step is the saccharification process of the starch in the mash, which, in addition to the enzymatic potential of the raw material, is significantly influenced by the structural properties and the associated physicochemical properties of the starch in the brewing malt. If starch saccharification is insufficient, this has a negative impact on all subsequent processing steps, including the quality of the end product. The recent above-average hot and dry summers have led to starch-related problems in the brewing industry, with a lasting reduction in process and product quality.
To reduce or avoid processing problems in the future, a practical rapid method for the analytical recording of gelatinization and saccharification behavior is required, as well as technological recommendations for adjusting process parameters to process batches with unfavorable starch characteristics.