A new technique may allow alcohol-free beer to taste and smell just like the regular brew.
People often complain that alcohol-free beer is tasteless, but researchers from the University of Valladolid in Spain have found that some of the aromas that are lacking can be carried across from regular beer.
The alcohol in beer acts as a solvent for a variety of aromatic compounds; therefore, when it is eliminated, the final product loses aromas and some of its taste.
"This technique consists in using a semipermeable membrane to separate two fractions from alcoholic beer: one liquid phase in which alcohol is retained, and another gaseous phase, where the aromatic compounds come in," Carlos A Blanco, one of the authors, told The Information and Scientific News Service (SINC).
"This gaseous phase can be condensed, the aromatic compounds extracted and added to non-alcoholic beer," said Blanco.
Researchers used a special beer (with 5.5 per cent alcohol) and another reserve beer (6.5 per cent) from which they extracted three aromatic compounds: ethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate and isobutyl alcohol.
They added these substances to two 'almost' alcohol-free beers on the market.
As many as 90 per cent of expert tasters preferred enriched low-alcohol beer instead of their original factory counterparts, and this percentage rose to 80 per cent for alcohol-free beer.
The research was published in the Journal of Food Engineering.
