Sayuri Kato (1),
Eri Goya (2), Makoto Kanauchi (3), Takumi Miyazawa (3), Masahito Muro
(1), Kimiko Nakajima (4), Yoshihiro Saito (5), Yukako Sato (4), Miho
Sawada (6), Izumi Sekine (1), Atsushi Suzuki (2), Masayuki Takahashi
(7), Hiroshi Takakuwa (8), Junichi Toyota (9), Fumihiko Tsuchiya (10),
Takayuki Watanabe (11); (1) Kirin Company, Ltd., Yokohama, Japan; (2)
Orion Breweries, Ltd., Japan; (3) Miyagi University, Japan; (4) Asahi
Breweries, Ltd., Japan; (5) Shimadzu Co., Japan; (6) Suntory Beer, Ltd.,
Japan; (7) National Research Institute of Brewing, Japan; (8) Agilent
Technologies Japan, Ltd., Japan; (9) Kinryo Electric Co., Ltd., Japan;
(10) Thermo Fisher Scientific K. K., Japan; (11) Sapporo Breweries,
Ltd., Japan
Analytical
Poster
Currently, lower boiling volatiles in beer are determined by headspace GC-FID, a method described in the Methods of Analysis
of the BCOJ. Whereas GC-FID has a wide dynamic range and the instrument
is inexpensive, the method cannot distinguish substances that have the
same retention time. This problem is more frequently encountered these
days, as beer varieties have increasingly diversified in Japan. Moreover
the GC-FID method for determination of lower boiling volatiles is often
affected by impurities. Under these backgrounds, we evaluated the
headspace GC/MS method as a potential alternative for analysis of lower
boiling volatiles in beer. In addition, our preliminary study showed a
better separation of i-amyl alcohol and active amyl alcohol by changing
the GC column from that adopted in the Methods of Analysis of the
BCOJ. Therefore we used the new GC column for further investigation,
and the collaborative work was conducted by 13 laboratories. The
statistical summary of results was shown as follows: RSDr
ranged from 1.5 to 3.2% for n-propyl alcohol, 2.9 to 7.9% for ethyl
acetate, 1.8 to 6.1% for iso-butyl alcohol, 1.4 to 5.2% for iso-amyl
alcohol, 1.8 to 5.9% for active amyl alcohol, and 3.3 to 14.4% for
iso-amyl acetate; RSDR ranged from 8.8 to 14.3% for n-propyl
alcohol, 10.9 to 15.3% for ethyl acetate, 4.7 to 9.7% for iso-butyl
alcohol, 7.9 to 9.7% for iso-amyl alcohol, 4.3 to 8.1% for active amyl
alcohol, and 15.9 to 22.8% for iso-amyl acetate. We judged these results
were acceptable. Taken collectively, GC/MS was shown to have high
sensitivity, selectivity and identification capability and is considered
as an excellent alternative approach to GC-FID. The subcommittee
recommended that the determination of lower boiling volatiles in beer by
headspace GC/MS method be adopted for inclusion in the Methods of Analysis of the BCOJ.
Sayuri Kato received a degree from the Department of Food and
Nutrition, Japan Women’s University, Japan. She began work as a chemical
analyst in 2011 at Kirin Company Ltd. She has been a member of the BCOJ
Analysis Committee since 2015.
