Quality improvement of low alcohol craft beer produced by evaporative pertraction

The non-alcoholic beverage industry is influenced by the trend of the consumers towards healthier diets and added convenience and greater health benefits in their beverage choices. With the world's changing approach to alcohol, operators need to find new beverages respect to the alcoholic ones. An alternative consists in the development of beverages similar to those alcoholic, but free of the negative effects of alcohol. Among various techniques for alcohol removal, evaporative pertraction is a simple and inexpensive process due to operating parameters and to the s tripping agent (generally water) used. We previously applied this technique to the dealcoholization of a lager beer, but a depletion of volatile compounds was observed. In this work we aim at producing a craft beer with reduced alcohol content (less than 1.2% vol) and with good quality. In order to limit aroma compound loss, evaporative pertraction using carbonated hydroalcoholic solutions as stripping agents, instead of water, was used. Moreover, maltodextrins were added in the beverage at the end of the dealcoholization process, in order to increase body and mouthfeel of the beer. The influence of these parameters was evaluated in terms of ethanol removal and beer quality properties (turbidity, foam, colour, bitterness, polyphenols, antioxidant activity, aroma) for the production of low alcohol craft beer, that is worth drinking.