Enzyme-powered NAB: A New Approach with 100% Unmalted Alternative Cereals

With an overall increasing awareness to live healthier lives, consumer demand for functional fermented beverages that help maintain a balanced diet while having a positive effect on health, is increasing globally. Conscious choices include non-alcoholic beers (NAB), sports beers, functional beers, and gluten-free beers. The rising demand for NAB has prompted in-depth research into their production. A recent study by our team explored the performance of commercial maltose- and maltotriose-negative yeasts in combination with barley malt as well as alternative cereals, at 40% addition, to create innovative and flavorful NAB. Building on this foundation, we now take a significant step forward by exploring the potential of 100% unmalted cereals, offering a new approach to NAB production with numerous advantages, including enhanced sustainability and diversity in NAB formulation with the option of naming it as sports beers, functional beers and gluten-free when using a gluten-free grain. The ongoing TETRA project ‘MaltLess’ investigates the use of exogenous enzymes in mashing with various unmalted cereals and pseudocereals, such as barley, wheat, khorasan, spelt, sorghum, einkorn, tritordeum, triticale, buckwheat, and rye. Where initial experiments focused on alcoholic wort production to evaluate grain-specific challenges and the impact on wort and final product quality following alcoholic fermentation, the current phase focuses on 100% unmalted alternative cereals for NAB with flexibility in wort composition. Cereals were selected for their suitability in NAB production due to their low endogenous beta-amylase activity. Test beers were brewed on a 500 L scale, with 100% barley malt replaced by a selection of alternative cereals selected for NAB production. Mashing using the exogenous enzymes was carried out in such a way as to obtain a minimum content of fermentable sugars and residual sugars combined with satisfactory processing. The brew was then divided into 100 L for fermentation with different maltose-negative yeasts. The obtained NAB were thoroughly characterized for their physicochemical parameters, sugar profile, FAN and soluble protein content, and sensorially evaluated. The produced NAB exhibited improved mouthfeel, enhanced foam stability, and a diversified flavor profile, setting the foundation for future innovation in non-alcoholic brewing. Notwithstanding diversification and innovation have already led to producing NAB with unmalted cereals as an addition to malt, brewing with 100% unmalted alternative cereals combined with added mashing enzymes remains unknown to the brewer. For the first time we tested 100% unmalted cereals with enzymes to produce a suitable NAB matrix in an attempt to overcome typical shortcomings of a non-alcoholic beer, such as too watery, sweet, worty character and little foam. This study allows brewers to exploit the full potential of alternative cereals and paves the way for NAB optimization, flavor diversification and further product refinement with regard to sensory characteristics and improved flavor stability upon storage.