Why bean beer?

Beer can be a wholesome beverage, and the art of brewing beer has been intertwined with the development of civilised society for centuries. Today, the latest valuation of the economic value of beer (by accountants Ernst and Young in 2013), reported that Europe is the world’s biggest producer of beer with over 4,500 breweries delivering around 390 million hectolitres annually – which in plain English is 68,632,200,000 pints (since 1 hectolitre is a small spillage less than 176 imperial pints). The industry employs over 2 million people, and around 125,000 of these are employed in breweries themselves. It should also be no surprise then that sales generated 53 billion Euro, which is almost doubled again by the value added from the supply chain. Also, the EU brewing sector had a trade surplus (i.e. exports were greater than imports) to the value of 3 billion Euro in 2012. Beer is serious business

<i>Clitoria ternatea</i> L. flower extract inhibits α-amylase during <i>in vitro </i>starch digestion

This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of Clitoria ternatea flower against α-amylase during simulated in vitro wheat starch digestion. The dark-blue tropical flower is used as a food colorant but its ability to modulate starch digestion has not been tested before. The aqueous extract of the flower containing anthocyanins was a competitive inhibitor against α-amylase with an IC50 value (concentration of inhibitor required to reduce the enzyme activity by half) and inhibition constant, Ki, of 0.91 mg/mL and 0.75 mg/mL,respectively. Subjecting the extract to pasteurisation (72oC for 15 s) and boiling (for 30 min) it significantly (P&lt;0.05) decreased the anthocyanin content as determined by a pH-shift method, although the light absorbance profile of the extract remained virtually unchanged, suggesting that the equilibrium mixture of anthocyanin species was unaffected. The thermal degradation of the anthocyanins explained the partial loss of inhibition activity of the extract, as indicated by the decrease in Michaelis-Menten constant, Km, from 14.8 mg/mL in thesystems with unheated extract to 11.3 and 6.1 mg/mL in pasteurised and boiled extracts, respectively. The thermal treatments, however, did not change the type (competitive) of inhibition. The results from this work demonstrated the potential of C. ternatea flower extract in inhibiting α-amylase during starch digestion, which might lead to development of functional food/drink for controlling postprandial blood glucose level

Optimised processing of faba bean (<i>Vicia faba L.</i>) kernels as a brewing adjunct

Pulse (Fabaceae) grains, such as peas and beans, are derived from crops that are usually cultivated in the absence of mineral nitrogen fertiliser as these crops can obtain their nitrogen requirement naturally from the air via biological nitrogen fixation. Therefore, pulses present a significantly lower greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint than crops demanding nitrogen fertiliser, whilst also offering significant quantities of starch for the brewing and distilling industries. Mitigation of agriculture derived GHG emissions through utilisation of pulses can have a positive environmental impact. To this end, the potential of exploiting dry, dehulled faba bean (Vicia faba L.) kernel flour as an adjunct for beer production was evaluated. The impact of different temperature regimes and commercial enzymes were assessed for their effect on wort: viscosity; run-off rate; primary amino nitrogen content and, fermentability. Faba beans demonstrated insufficient endogenous enzyme capacity for starch conversion and generated a viscous wort. However, using a stepped temperature mashing regime and exogenous enzyme additions, the faba bean wort was comparable in processability and fermentability to that of 100% malted barley wort. The faba based beer and co-product qualities demonstrate the environmental, nutritional and commercial potential of pulses in brewing.</p

The iconisation of yeast spreads—love them or hate them

The production of beer yields a number of by-product streams, with spent brewers’ yeast being the second most abundant in volume. The high nutritional value of spent yeast has seen a large proportion of spent brewers’ yeast being used for both food and feed purposes. One of the uses of spent brewers’ yeast for human consumption has been the production of yeast spreads, which came onto the market in the early 20th century, first in the United Kingdom and shortly thereafter in the commonwealth dominions, especially Australia and New Zealand. In this research we investigated the national status of yeast spreads in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. We show that a brewery by-product such as spent brewers’ yeast is more than a mere novel utilisation of a waste stream but have become inherently associated with national identities of these countries to such an extent that some brands have become iconicised. Furthermore, some yeast spread brands have become a symbol of (inter)national polarisation, purely based on its initial sensorial characterisation

Utilization of low nitrogen barley for production of distilling quality malt

The potential to utilize low nitrogen barley for production of distilling quality malt was studied. This presents an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilizer applications. Malting barley (cv. Octavia) was grown without the application of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer, to produce grain with a relatively low nitrogen concentration (1.16%, dry weight basis). Following micro-malting trials, dextrinizing units (58 DU) obtained from low nitrogen malt were much higher than a typical specification of 45 DU for malt with a conventional nitrogen concentration (&lt;1.5%). A higher soluble nitrogen ratio (SNR) or index of modification (IoM) of 49 indicated greater modification of the low nitrogen barley, resulting in higher extract released into the wort. Additionally, much lower levels of β-glucan were found in low nitrogen malt wort (64 mg/L compared with over 100 mg/L in wort of conventional nitrogen malt). Low nitrogen malt also produced higher predicted spirit yields following wort fermentation and wash distillation. These findings indicate that lower nitrogen concentration barley can be processed without negatively impacting malt quality for distilling applications. The implication of these findings to help realize more environmentally sustainable production of barley for malting and use in distilling is discussed.</p

Distillery and brewery pulse-enriched by-product qualities

This research focuses on the role of pulses in enriching brewery and distillery by-products increasing their values in terms of nutrition, profitability and creating products for new markets. By-products obtained from both lab scale investigations and commercial breweries and distilleries were analysed in regards to their nutritional value for animal feed including: - 1) Comparison of protein concentration and amino acid profiles of typical brewery and distillery by-products to those produced from pulses. 2) Investigation into the impact of distillery insoluble material removal timing on by-product quality. Trials of separating and purification techniques were also conducted. Certain aspects of this research have been published open access - see research outputs related to this project. The full dataset cannot be made openly available because it relates to commercially sensitive data associated with Arbikie Distilling Ltd. Access to the dataset may be possible for authenticated researchers under specific conditions. Please use the contact details to request access to the dataset

Cereal-legume intercropping - field and harvest data

To investigate the feasibility of utilising legumes to support the growth of traditional cereal crops field experiments were conducted at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie between 2014 and 2017. Different crops and treatments were tested across these growing seasons covering varying cultivars, sowing densities and field applications. Species intercropped: spring barley + spring pea and winter wheat with faba bean. Data collected: field data (establishment rate, weed cover, heights) and post harvest (harvest quantities, harvested material quality). Certain aspects of this research have been published open access - see research outputs related to this project. The full dataset cannot be made openly available because it relates to commercially sensitive data associated with Arbikie Distilling Ltd. Access to the dataset may be possible for authenticated researchers under specific conditions. Please use the contact details to request access to the dataset

Distillery and brewery pulse-enriched by-product qualities

This research focuses on the role of pulses in enriching brewery and distillery by-products increasing their values in terms of nutrition, profitability and creating products for new markets. By-products obtained from both lab scale investigations and commercial breweries and distilleries were analysed in regards to their nutritional value for animal feed including: - 1) Comparison of protein concentration and amino acid profiles of typical brewery and distillery by-products to those produced from pulses. 2) Investigation into the impact of distillery insoluble material removal timing on by-product quality. Trials of separating and purification techniques were also conducted. Certain aspects of this research have been published open access - see research outputs related to this project. The full dataset cannot be made openly available because it relates to commercially sensitive data associated with Arbikie Distilling Ltd. Access to the dataset may be possible for authenticated researchers under specific conditions. Please use the contact details to request access to the dataset

Cereal-legume intercropping - field and harvest data

To investigate the feasibility of utilising legumes to support the growth of traditional cereal crops field experiments were conducted at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie between 2014 and 2017. Different crops and treatments were tested across these growing seasons covering varying cultivars, sowing densities and field applications. Species intercropped: spring barley + spring pea and winter wheat with faba bean. Data collected: field data (establishment rate, weed cover, heights) and post harvest (harvest quantities, harvested material quality). Certain aspects of this research have been published open access - see research outputs related to this project. The full dataset cannot be made openly available because it relates to commercially sensitive data associated with Arbikie Distilling Ltd. Access to the dataset may be possible for authenticated researchers under specific conditions. Please use the contact details to request access to the dataset