Foster, R. D.1, Conn, S.1 and Gamache, D.1, (1)Virgil Gamache Farms Inc., Toppenish, WA, USA
Poster
In the ever-evolving world of hops, the constant introduction of both new and novel varieties can lead to uncertainty concerning the true origins of a sample being presented. There are a handful of varieties that while comprised of the same rootstock possess different brand names based upon who grew them and where. The potential for overlap between new and existing varieties has led to a need for reliable hop characterization methods. While researching techniques for hop characterization through chemical analysis, the established publications only focused on the terpenes in essential oils. These publications also focused on the direct comparison of chromatographic results against that of other samples to determine varietal differences. In recent years the importance of the sulfur compounds, in the form of polyfunctional thiols, has become apparent. Through the early adoption of this mindset we identified a trend in our sulfur chemiluminescence data. The observed trend led to the realization that thiol compounds can be used as a fingerprint for both variety and growing region. We were able to create an initial database from samples in our inventory by converting the chromatographic data to ratios based on a common peak found in all varieties. With this database, we established the viability of our methodology and expanded it to include other varieties and regions. This ratiometric scrutiny allows for the validation of variety and growing region through impartial scientific analysis.
Ryan Foster is the lab director at Virgil Gamache Farms in Toppenish, WA. He has spent the last four years working in both flavor and fragrance and the hop industry. His work areas have focused on organic synthesis, analytical analysis, and product assessment. While at Virgil Gamache Farms he has focused on verifying current in-house methods and developing new techniques to be used in the analysis of hop cones. He is a member of ACS, ASBC, and MBAA. Ryan completed his B.S. degree at Northern Michigan University.
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