BEER-TASTE BEVERAGE

Abstract

A beer-taste beverage containing 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one (4MMP), wherein the mass ratio of 4MMP to an α-acid 4MMP (ppt)/α-acid (ppm)) is 45 or more. According to the present invention, a beer-taste beverage having excellent flavors, capable of giving a rich, black currant-like aroma and having lowered disagreeable bitterness originated from hops can be provided.

Claims

1. A beer-taste beverage comprising 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one (4MMP), wherein the mass ratio of 4MMP to an α-acid (4MMP (ppt)/α-acid (ppm)) is 45 or more.

2. The beer-taste beverage according to claim 1, wherein the content of 4MMP is from 10 to 400 ppt.

3. The beer-taste beverage according to claim 1, wherein the content of an α-acid is 1.0 ppm or less.

4. A method for producing a beer-taste beverage as defined in claim 1, comprising adding a hop processed product obtained by high-temperature-and-high-pressure-treating a hop-containing water under the conditions of from 130° to 160° C. and 0.27 to 0.62 MPa to any of the steps in the production of the beer-taste beverage.

5. The method for production according to claim 4, wherein the hops used in the preparation of the hop processed product comprise one or more varieties selected from the group consisting of Apollo, Cascade, Saaz, Citra, Simcoe, Strisselspalt, Chinook, Nelson Sauvin, and Hallertauer Blanc.

6. A method for producing a hop processed product, comprising the step of high-temperature-and-high-pressure-treating a hop-containing water under the conditions of from 130° to 160° C. and 0.27 to 0.62 MPa.

7. A hop processed product obtained by a method for production as defined in claim 6.

Description

EXAMPLES

[0051] The present invention will be specifically described hereinbelow by the Examples, without intending to limit the scope of the present invention to the following Examples.

Test Example 1—Sensory Test by Addition

[0052] To an unhopped beer (beer without using hops as a raw material) which was studied to be produced by the house were added an α-acid manufactured by SIGMA-ALDRICH and 4MMP manufactured by Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. so as to have, a concentration each listed in Table 1, the mixture was well mixed, and a carbon dioxide gas pressure was adjusted, to produce each of the beer-taste beverages of Examples 1 to 7 and Comparative Examples 1 to 3.

[0053] <Sensory Evaluations>

[0054] The flavors of each of the mixtures obtained were evaluated by sensory tests according to a scoring method. Five well-trained sensory evaluators were asked to evaluate for “quality of bitterness,” “intensity of black currant aroma,” “balance of aromas,” and “overall evaluation” in a 5-point full score for each item. The criteria of the scoring are as follows. On the bases that “very highly tasted or tasted very good” was given a score of 5, “tasted or tasted good” a score of 4, “slightly tasted or tasted normal” a score of 3, “hardly tasted or faintly tasted had” a score of 2, and “not tasted or tasted bad” a score of 1, a mean score of the evaluation scores was calculated. The evaluations were carried out in accordance with the following criteria based on the mean score. The results are shown in Table 1. [0055] a score of 1 or more to a score of less than 2: ×; [0056] a score of 2 or more to a score of less than 3: Δ; [0057] a score of 3 or more to a score of less than 4: ◯; and [0058] a score of 4 or more to a score of 5 or less: ⊚.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Comparative Examples Examples 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Amount α-Acid, ppm 3.0 1.5 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 4MMP, ppt 10 10 50 50 50 50 50 100 200 300 4MMP/α-Acid, 3 7 33 50 100 167 500 1000 2000 3000 ppt/ppm Sensory Quality of X Δ Δ ◯ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ Evaluations Bitterness Intensity ◯ ◯ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ of Black Currant Aroma Balance ◯ ◯ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ◯ Δ of Aromas Overall X Δ Δ ◯ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ⊚ ◯ Δ Evaluation

[0059] As is clear from Table 1, it could be seen that the beer-taste beverages of Examples 1 to 7 were excellent in both “quality of bitterness” and “intensity of black currant aroma,” in comparisons to Comparative Examples 1 to 3. Since Example 7 had considerably intensively been given with the aromas originated from 4MMP, the evaluation would be undesirable in the aspect of “balance of aromas,” as compared to those of the beer-taste beverages of Examples 1 to 6, which resulted in less advantage results as the overall evaluation, but it was within the acceptable range as the manufactured article.

Test Example 2—Beer Brewery

[0060] <Production of Beer>

[0061] One-hundred liters of a filtered wort obtained by an ordinary method was heated to 98° C. with a boiling kettle, and a hop processed product (variety: Citra, area of produce: U.S.A.) which was previously treated in a tightly closed vessel under conditions as listed in Table 2 was then added to the raw material solution so as to have an added concentration as listed in Table 2. After stirring for one minute, the mixture was subjected to whirlpool rest, and rapidly cooled, to prepare a cold wort. Thereafter, an yeast was added to allow fermentation, a mixture was filtered, and a carbon dioxide gas pressure was then adjusted, to produce a beer-taste beverage of Example 8. The same procedures as in Example 8 were carried out except that the addition of an untreated hop was changed to the addition of the hop processed product, to produce a beer-taste beverage of Comparative Example 4. Here, the tightly closed vessel refers to a 5-L metallic pressure-resistant vessel, which could be completely stoppered during the treatment. In all cases, the hop-containing water was filled in an amount such that the volume of the hop-containing water before the treatment in the tightly closed vessel corresponds to from 50 to 90% by volume of the entire volume in the tightly closed vessel (spatial volume of from 50 to 10% by volume for the void portion). In addition, the analytical values for the “hop processed product” in Table 2 were a value after addition to the raw material solution, and the content of each ingredient in the hop processed product can be converted to a value shown within parenthesis.

[0062] <Measurement of Amount of α-Acid>

[0063] The amount was quantified in accordance with a method as described in Method 7.7 of “Analytica-EBC” of the analytical method published by the EBC (European Brewery Convention), and a converted amount was calculated by defining the content of Comparative Example 1 as 1.

[0064] <Measurement of Amount of 4MMP>

[0065] The measurement was carried out in accordance with a method described in Anal Chim Acta. 2014 Apr. 22, 821, 48-53.

[0066] <Sensory Evaluations>

[0067] The flavors of the beers obtained were evaluated in accordance with the sensory tests according to a scoring method. Five well-trained sensory evaluators were asked to evaluate for “quality of bitterness,” “intensity of black currant aroma,” “balance of aromas,” and “overall evaluation” in a 5-point full score. On the bases that “very highly tasted or tasted very good” was given a score of 5, “tasted or tasted good” a score of 4, “faintly tasted or tasted normal” a score of 3, “hardly tasted or slightly tasted bad” a score of 2, and “not tasted or tasted bad” a score of 1, a mean score of evaluated scores was calculated. The evaluations were made in accordance with the following criteria based on the mean score. The results are shown in Table 2. [0068] a score of 1 or more to less than a score of 2: ×; [0069] a score of 2 or more to less than a score of 3: Δ; [0070] a score of 3 or more to less than a score of 4: ◯; and [0071] a score of 4 or more to a score of 5 or less ⊚.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Table 2 Comp. Ex. Ex. 4 8 Treatment Temperature, ° C. — 130 Conditions Pressure, MPa —  0.27 Time, minutes —  15 After Temperature, ° C. —  25 Treatment Added Concentration, g/L  1.5  1.5 Hop Amount of α-Acid, ppm 25.7  7.3 (146) Processed Amount of 4MMP, ppt  9.8  14.5 (290) Product: Ratio of 4MMP/α-Acid,  0.4  2.0 Manu- Amount of α-Acid, ppm  2.44  0.58 factured Amount of 4MMP, ppt 39.0 58.0 Article Ratio of 4MMPα-Acid. 16 100 ppt/ppm Sensory Quality of Bitterness Δ ⊚ Evaluations Intensity of ◯ ⊚ Black Currant Aroma Balance of Aromas ◯ ◯ Overall Evaluation Δ ⊚

[0072] As is clear from Table 2, the beer-taste beverage of Example 8 was excellent in the aspects of “quality of bitterness” and “intensity of black currant aroma,” and resulted in a high score as the overall evaluation. On the other hand, Comparative Example 4 which is a level in which untreated hops were added was disadvantageous in the aspects of “quality of bitterness,” and resulted in unfavorable evaluations.

Test Example 3—Hop Processed Product

[0073] Raw materials of hops (variety: Citra, area of produce: U.S.A.) were added to a hot water at 95° C., and the mixture was stirred for 1 minute, and then allowed to stand for 30 minutes, to give a hop processed product of Preparation Example 1. In addition, raw materials of hops (variety: Citra, area of produce: U.S.A.) were mixed with water so as to have a concentration as listed in Table 3, and each of the mixtures obtained was treated under conditions listed in Table 3 using a tightly closed vessel, to give each of hop processed products of Preparation Examples 2 to 8. Each of the hop processed products of Preparation Examples 2 to 8 obtained was ice-cooled to a temperature listed in Table 3, and the ice-cooled hop processed product was added to a hot water at 95° C., so as to have an added concentration of hops equivalent to that of Preparation Example 1, and the mixture was stirred for 1 minute, and then allowed to stand for 30 minutes. Thereafter, the contents of each ingredient were measured in accordance with the following measurement method. The results are shown in Table 3. Here, a tightly closed vessel refers to a 150-ml metallic pressure-resistant vessel, which could be completely stoppered during the treatment. In all cases, the hop-containing water was filled in an amount such that the volume of the hop-containing water before the treatment in the tightly closed vessel corresponds to from 50 to 90% by volume (spatial volume of 50 to 10% by volume of the void portion) in the volume of the tightly closed vessel. In addition, the analytical values of the “hop processed products” in Table 3 list the values after adding the hops to hot water, and the contents of each ingredient in the hop processed product can be converted to the values also listed within parentheses.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Preparation Examples 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Treatment Treatment — 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 Conditions Conc., g/L of Hop- Temp., °C. — 120 130 135 135 135 140 150 Containing Pressure, Mpa — 0.20 0.27 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.36 0.48 Water Time, minute — 15 15 15 30 60 15 15 After Temp., °C. — 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 Treatment Added Concentration, g/L 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 Hop Amount of 36.6 15.0 13.0 12.5 10.5 5.0 11.5 3.5 Processed α-Acid, ppm (300) (260) (250) (210) (100) (230) (70) Product Amount of 13.9 27.0 31.6 36.0 35.4 46.0 41.4 62.4 4MMP, ppt (540) (632) (720) (708) (920) (828) (1248) Ratio of 0.4 1.8 2.4 2.9 3.4 9.2 3.6 17.8 4MMP/α-Acid, ppt/ppm

[0074] It is clear from Table 3 that the amount of 4MMP is increased and the amount of α-acid is lowered by increasing the treatment temperature, from the comparisons of Preparation Examples 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8. In addition it is clear that the amount of 4MMP can be increased and the amount of α-acid in the processed product can be remarkably lowered by extending the treatment time, from the comparisons of Preparation Examples 4 to 6. As the hop extracts used in the production of the beer-taste beverage of the present invention, all of Preparation Examples 2 to 8 can be used, and it is especially preferable to use the hop extracts of Preparation. Examples 6 to 8.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0075] According to the present invention, a beer-taste beverage having excellent flavors, capable of giving a rich, black currant-like aroma and having lowered disagreeable bitterness originated from hops can be provided.