Beer is an incredibly complex beverage containing more than 3000 different compounds, including carbohydrates, proteins, ions, microbes, organic acids, and polyphenols, among others.Some of the analytical methods used for quality control are presented

1. ANALYSIS OF BEER
PRESENTED BY
Kavitha Chowdhary
M. Pharmacy 1st year
VIGNAN INSTITUTE OF PHARMACEUTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Beside VSEZ , Duvvada, VISAKHAPATNAM- 530046
(Approved by A.I.C.T.E & PCI and affliated to JNTUK)
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2. CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Determination of Acidity in beer.
i.e. fixed acidity
volatile acidity.
 Determination of Alcohol content in beer.
 Determination of Preservatives content in beer.
i.e. tannins
sulphur dioxide.
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3. INTRODUCTION
BEER is one of the oldest and the
most widely consumed alcoholic
drinks in the world.
Beer is brewed from cereal grains
– most commonly from malted
barely, though wheat, maize and
rice are also used.
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4. Determination of Acidity in beer
INTRODUCTION :
Good beer is about more than just a combination of yeast, hops, and
barley. It’s also about the pH levels.The final pH of the beer gives you
flavour and taste, and if you can keep track of that, this is how you
make quality beer,” says professor Wendland.The pH scale runs from 0
to 14, with the range of 0-7 being acidic, and 8-14 being more alkaline.
“Most of what we eat and drink is around 7,” says professor Wendland.
Beer, however, usually scores around 4 on the pH scale.
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5. ANALYSIS
Fixed acidity : Evaporate 20ml of beer to dryness on a boiling-water bath and
then successively evaporate after adding water.Finally stir with water and titrate
with 0.1M sodium hydroxide using phenolphthalein as indicator.Calculate the
fixed acidity as lactic and acetic acids
Volatile acidity : Dilute 20ml beer with water and titrate with 0.1M sodium
hydroxide using phenolphthalein as indicator.Then calculated as acetic acid
represents the volatile acidity.
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6. Determination of Alcohol content in beer
Distillation method :
I. Apparatus - Volumetric flask, separating funnel, distillation unit.
II. Reagents - NaCl, NaOH, Petroleum ether, phenolphthalein indicator
III. Procedure -
• To 200ml of sample add NaCl untill the solutions becomes saturated.
• To this solution add 100ml of petroleum ether and shake for 2-3 minutes and allow
to settle for few minutes.
• To the petroleum ether layer ad about 20-23ml of saturated NaCl and shake gently
and again allow it to settle.
• Take the aqueous layer to the distillation flask and add NaOH to make it alkaline
using phenolphthalein as indicator and also add pumic stone .
• Now connect this with distillation apparatus , distillate gently.
• Take the contents into the volumetric flask and cool the solution and determine the
specific gravity 6

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8. Determination of Preservatives
Of all vegetable derivatives to impart its characteristic flavour to beer and to
prevent it from ageing, only hop is now considered to be an essential raw material.
Hops and their derivatives offer the industry better control over the properties of
beer, such as froth stability, bitterness and scent.
Mostly used preservatives in beer are
 Tannins
 Sulphites such as sulphur dioxide
 Histamines
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9. Determination of tannin in beer
Spectrophotometric method :
Reagents – Folin Dennis reagent, sodium carbonate solution, standard tannic acid
solution.
Instrument – Double beam spectrophotometer.
Preparation of standard curve –
• Pipette 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0ml of std tannic acid solution in 100ml volumetric flask
containing 75ml of water
• To these flasks add 5ml Folin Dennis reagent and 10 ml of sodium carbonate solution
and make up the volume with water
• Mix well and after 30min determine the absorbance of each standard using reagent
blank
• Plot the absorbance against the concentration of tannic acid. 9

10. Procedure -
• Pipette 1ml of the beer sample into 100ml volumetric flask containing 80ml
water
• To this flask add 5ml of Folin-Dennis reagent and 10ml of sodium carbonate
solution and make up the volume to 100ml with water.
• Mix well and after 30mins determine the absorbance and plot a graph of
absorbance against concentration.
Calculation -
Obtain the mg of tannic acid using the standard curve and calculate to express
the value in g/L of beer.
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11. Determination of sulphur dioxide in beer :
Distillation method :
Distillations method are among the most widely used procedures for
analysis of the total sulphur dioxide . Most are adaptions of the Monier-
Williams distillation method (below:distillation method).
Sulphur dioxide is transported from acidified beer sample by nitrogen and
carbon dioxide at 100o C to the hydro peroxide solution.
SO2 is converted into sulphuric acid , which is titrated with NaOH.
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12. CALCULATION :
SULPHUR DIOXIDE mg/kg = 32000(V-v)N/W
where V – Titrant volume.
v – blank volume.
N – normality of NaOH.
W – weight of the sample. 12

13. REFERENCES :
• Adams, M.R. and L. Nicolaides. 2008. Review of the sensitivity of different food
borne pathogens to fermentation. Food Control 8: 227–239.
• Anderson HE, Santos IC, Hildenbrand ZL, Schug KA. A review of the analytical
methods used for beer ingredient and finished product analysis and quality
control. Analytica chimica acta. 2019 Aug 1.
• https://www.slideshare.net/himajadonthula/analysis-of-fermentation-products-
by-himaja
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