A Review of Flavour Formationin Continuous Beer Fermentations*

Tomáš Brányik^1,3, António A. Vicente², Pavel Dostálek¹ and José A. Teixeira²
¹ Institute of Chemical Technology, Department of Fermentation Chemistry and Bioengineering, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic
² Centro de Engenharia Biológica, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
³ Corresponding author. E-mail: tomas.branyik@vscht.cz
* A portion of this paper was presented by T. Brányik at the XII Chair J. De Clerck, 10-13 September, 2006, Leuven, Belgium.

J. Inst. Brew. 114(1), 3–13, 2008 | VIEW ARTICLE

ABSTRACT
The attractive prospect of a continuous beer fermentation system consists mostly of the accelerated transformation of wort into beer. Although continuous beer fermentation has been studied as a promising technology for several decades, the number of industrial applications is still limited. The major obstacle hindering the extensive industrial exploitation of this technology is the difficulty in achieving the correct balance of sensory compounds in the short time typical for continuous systems. This paper offers an integral view on the particularities of continuous systems, which may impart beer a sensorial character distinct from conventionally fermented counterparts. The main groups of flavor active compounds are discussed from the perspective of possible control strategies by means of process parameters and strain selection.

Key words:
Beer, continuous, control, flavour, fermentation, reactor.