Using SPECORD PLUS for UV/Vis Analysis of Beer: Color Application Note · SPECORD 200 PLUS

Introduction

Beer has been around for thousands of years (approximately 7,000, more or less), and will most likely continue to be here for generations to come. Today’s beer market has become extremely diverse, offering everything from the alcohol-free to low-carb to raspberry-chocolate flavored beers. Today, multinational corporations tend to dominate the multi-billion dollar industry, although there is also a surge of smaller craft breweries, which infuse the market with new and innovative beer creations.

In order to ensure both the quality of the beer being produced and in order to be able to maintain consistency of the quality from batch to batch, a large variety of analytical methods and devices are available to breweries. The European Brewing Convention (EBC) and the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) are examples of brewer’s organizations which have set and provide testing guidelines and which recognize UV/Vis spectroscopy as a reliable method for testing beer.

The goal of every production run is to ensure that the final product possesses the desired color, appearance, flavor, texture and overall impression. UV/Vis spectrophotometers offer relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated methods for measuring and analyzing several, according to the ASBC at least 12, of the parameters crucial to the quality of production. These parameters can be monitored continuously in every phase of the brewing process. They include among others: absorbance integral, Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN), alcohol, carbohydrate and protein content, color, and bitterness.

Analytic Jena offers a comprehensive UV/Vis portfolio of high quality UV/Vis spectrophotometers, accessories and software, making the analysis and measurement of several parameters critical to quality precise, fast, and efficient.