Reducing power of hop cultivars and beer ageing

Since lipid auto-oxidation during wort boiling is a determining for the appearance of staling flavour in aged beers, we have investigated the reducing power of hops added in the boiling kettle. An assay based on the inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation in the presence of an initiator [2,2′-azobis(2-amidino-propane) dihydrochloride=AAPH] enabled us to distinguish hop varieties and conditionings. Large differences in hop flavanoid contents explained the higher antioxidant activity of low-α-acid samples versus bitter varieties and CO2 hop extracts. As expected, adding hop pellets to the kettle effectively increased the overall reducing activity of wort. Supercritical CO2 hop extracts had no significant effect due to their extremely low level of polyphenols. The concentration of the very well-known marker of beer ageing, trans-2-nonenal, was lower in boiled wort exhibiting a better reducing power. The AAPH reducing power test applied to hops or worts was thus efficient to predict the nonenal synthesis during boiling. Hop varieties and conditionings emerged from this work as key-parameters for improving the reducing power of wort and the flavour stability of the final product.