Page 7 - Food&Beverages Beer

Color IBU

The color of food and beverages is so important that it’s been Method (SRM) while the Europeans use the European Brewery Bitterness is one of the major flavor components in beer and is bitterness in beer is by measuring the iso-alpha acids (IAA). This
said that people “eat with the eyes” and their palates. If a food Convention (EBC). To convert from SRM to EBC, use the formula: used to balance out the sweetness from the malts. The process requires a different solvent extraction and measurement
tastes bad, someone will probably not eat it again; however, if it EBC = SRM x 1.97. The higher the SRM value, the darker the bitterness from the hops is caused by alpha acids, which are of absorbance at 255 nm. Results are reported in units of mg/L
doesn’t look good it may never be tasted at all. beer. extracted from the hops flower during the boil process. The or parts per million (weight/volume). There can be some
The color of beer can be measured with a UV-Visible The second method, which provides more color information, is alpha acids are converted to iso-alpha acids and provide the differences between the results of these two methods.
spectrophotometer. There are two methods for measuring the the CIELAB method, also called Tristimulus Analysis. This method bitter taste. Hops also add their own aroma and flavor to the The European Bitterness Units (EBU) scale as defined by the
color of beer depending on how much information is required. measures 81 points at 5 nm increments from 380 nm to 780 nm. beer as well as provide antibacterial and preservative qualities. European Brewery Convention (EBC) has a different process
The first method is a single point measurement at 430 nm with The color vision theory is based on three opponent pairs for the The International Bitterness Units (IBU) scale was created to than the IBU scale of American Society of Brewing Chemists
a 1 nm bandwidth. This method has been reported to provide L*a*b* values where the “L” is the luminosity, “a” is the red to measure the perceived bitterness of beer. The method requires a (ASBC).
92% of the information on beer color. Americans and green color component, and “b” is the yellow to blue color solvent extraction followed by measurement at 275 nm with a For hops analysis by specific compound type, see “Section 2: Top
Europeans preform the same measurement, but the color component. This type of measurement requires optional UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Another method for measuring Beer Analyses – Hop Degradation Analysis – Alpha Acids.”
schemes are different. Americans use the Standard Reference Shimadzu color software.

L*=100
(white)
b*
yellowish

-α* a*
greenish reddish

Shimadzu UV-1800 for
-b*
blueish measurement of beer bitterness
and alcohol content
L*=0
(black)

CIELAB Color Space for Beer Analysis
Shimadzu UV-1800 for
measurement of beer color

Shimadzu’s Total Support for Beer Analysis
6 Analytical and Testing Instruments for Beer 7