​​JASBC Editor's Pick

Quantitative Analysis of Ferulic Acid Dehydrodimers in Wort and Beer Using UPLC-QTOF: Implications for Water Extractable Arabinoxylan (WEAX) Gel Formation​

WEAX compounds are non-starch polysaccharides containing a xylose backbone with arabinose branches, a percentage of which are esterified to ferulic acid. The formation of ferulic acid dimers can facilitate WEAX crosslinking and in turn gel formation. WEAX extracted from grain during mashing is associated with problems related to wort viscosity (lautering), filtration and even haze formation in final product. Dulcie Thomson et al. present an ultr​a-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem time of flight mass analyser (UPLC-QTOF) approach, to accurately quantify the various ferulic acid dehydrodimers (di-FA) in wort and beer, including the enzymatic digestion of samples prior to analysis using commercially available brewing enzymes.​ Read this Editor’s Pick open access in JASBC!