It turns out the discussion around beer is much more complex than “less filling” and “tastes great.” A team of German chemists recently put more than 400 commercial beers from 40 countries to the test to better understand how they develop their distinct flavors, according to an article from Ars Technica. In doing so, they identified over 7,700 chemical formulas, and tens of thousands of unique molecular structures.
Over the years, scientists have conducted a number of investigations around the different chemical aspects of beer. The latest study by the German team focuses on the influence of different starch sources on the metabolic signatures of a broad range of beers, according to the article. The team combined two complementary mass spectrometry techniques and put them to work on beers brewed around the world and purchased from local grocery stories. Their novel approach analyzes a sample in just 10 minutes. Findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Frontiers in Chemistry.
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