Analysis of volatiles of malt whisky by solid-phase microextraction and stir bar sorptive extraction

Blended Scotch whisky was analysed by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) to study the composition of the volatiles. For SPME analysis, three different fibres were compared, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) (100 μm), poly(acrylate) (PA) (85 μm) and divinylbenzene–Carboxen on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (DVB–CAR–PDMS) (50/30 μm). It was found that the PDMS and DVB–CAR–PDMS fibres showed a higher enrichment capacity than PA, as well as a better reproducibility. The influence of sampling time, temperature and salt addition on the enrichment of volatiles as well as the difference between liquid and headspace SPME were studied. An optimum SPME method was developed. Finally a more recent sample preparation technique, namely SBSE was evaluated to extract whisky volatiles.