Hot summer days are the time when consumers are most eager to explore the market for beers with additives. They look for drinks that promise a powerful, fruity hit from the moment they open the can or bottle. Focusing on what summer’s new products have to offer, it’s worth checking which fruit juice concentrates provide the most intense aroma and understanding the mechanisms behind these captivating scents.
Do aromas affect the taste of beer?
The answer from the sensory science is short and clear: yes, and in a fundamental way. The senses of taste and smell are inextricably linked. What we perceive as the multidimensional flavor of fruit beer comes in over 70% from the olfactory receptors in our nasal cavity.
Even if a beer has a solid malt base and adequate bitterness, without the support of volatile aroma compounds from the fruit, the flavor profile will seem flat. That’s why it’s so important for fruit juice concentrates for beer to be a carrier of a powerful aromatic bouquet.
How to obtain the most intense beer aroma using fruit juice concentrates?
Obtaining the perfect aroma in beer requires specialized knowledge and technology. First of all, you need to decide, which juice to choose for fruit beer and at what stage to dose it. Adding concentrate at the brewing stage (to hot wort) will result in the loss of most of the aromas through the natural evaporation of the extremely volatile aroma molecules.
A much more effective method of building aroma is to add the juices just before bottling – on the cold side of the fermentation room. Knowing the differences between classic and concentrated juices, the brewer knows that concentrated bases, thanks to their lower water content, carry a much more concentrated aroma charge without diluting the beer itself.
Which fruit juice concentrates will give beer an intense aroma?
Here are the fruit groups whose concentrated juices are characterized by the highest penetration power, often masking the natural malt and hop aromas, thus creating a profile of a fruity aroma-and-flavor mixture.
Tropical fruits
The absolute king of summer beer festivals. Mango, pineapple, grape and guava contain extremely intense esters and thiols. It is the addition of pulp and concentrate from these fruits that can completely dominate the bouquet of beer, giving it an exotic aroma that is extremely desired by customers.
Sour fruits
Raspberries, blackberries and black and red currants – a category of fruits that hit the nose with freshness. They are characterized by high acidity and a “perfumed” profile, which, however, gives way to the intensity of tropical citrus fruits. They go well with bases such as Sour or Berliner Weisse.
Citrus fruits
Lemon, grapefruit, blood orange or tangerine. Juices from these fruits are extremely refreshing, often carrying light, pleasant notes of so-called yellow fruits, harmonizing wonderfully with new wave hops.
Why are our fruit juice concentrates effective in adding aroma to beers?
The effectiveness of our products lies in careful selection and uncompromising technological processing based solely on water evaporation. Knowing exactly what juice from concentrated juice is, we optimize every stage of its production.
Water evaporation takes place under gentle vacuum conditions, so that the volatile aromas are not destroyed by high temperatures and are automatically returned to the concentrate to maintain its natural fruit aroma.
Importantly, the concentrated juice we supply is a product with standardized, repeatable specifications. This concentration of natural sugars and aromas guarantees that with each subsequent batch the beer’s aroma will be just as refreshing and multi-dimensional, attracting crowds of lovers of craft experiments.