Use of AMD-HPTLC for Carbohydrate Monitoring in Beers

Determination of malto-oligosaccharides and monosaccharides is important for controlling brewing processes and for characterization of final product taste by making a correlation between sensory impressions and quantitative measurement of the components. Amino-layer HPTLC (high-performance thin-layer chromatography) associated with AMD (automated multiple development ) has been evaluated for use in monitoring of maltotetraose, maltotriose, glucose, and fructose in different beers. The AMD-HPTLC system allows one to operate under gradient conditions and to separate complex mixtures of components within large intervals of polarity. In this case the gradient was based on acetonitrile-acetone-water. The results obtained show that the low detection limit, the absence of clean-up procedures, and the high sample throughout make this method suitable even for use on a large scale, thus making it possible to control the main fermentation components in commercial beers.