Research and development to obtain extracts of hops (Humulus lupulus) using pressurized fluid technology for application in the beverage industry

Abstract

Beer is a widely consumed drink worldwide and the hop flower is part of the ingredients in brewing. In the last decade, beer consumption has increased at an average rate of 5% per year, especially the craft beer segment, which has grown by around 20% annually. In the last 2 years there has been a growth of 33% in the registration of new breweries in the state of São Paulo. In brewing, hops can be used through dehydrated flowers, pellets or extract. Brazil imports almost all of its demand for hops from the United States and Germany, but from 2015 the national production of hops began to gain prominence. The hop extract produced from domestic hop using pressurized fluid technology is of interest to the national brewer market as it is interesting to use it at different stages of brewing. In this context, this project was elaborated by Kalamazoo Natural Solutions, a new company that will emerge from the idea of MSc. Aureliano Agostinho Dias Meirelles and Dr. Juliane Viganó, based on the scientific needs and market opportunity to strengthen the brewing market, especially those characterized as craft, which is expanding in Brazil. This project intends to value national hops and offer an affordable product for Brazilian microbreweries. Thus, the overall objective of this project is to obtain hops extracts from hops cultivated in Brazil using pressurized fluid technology for application in the beverage industry. The activities of this project are divided into stages, which are: (1) raw material collection; (2) treatment of the raw material; (3) characterization of the raw material; (4) extractions with carbon dioxide (CO2) will be performed in the supercritical and subcritical state, the objective is to verify if the different extraction conditions will be able to produce extracts with different yield and chemical composition; (5) characterization of extract in terms of the global yield, ±-acid and ß-acid content, essential oils, and total phenolic compounds. Commercial extracts will be purchased from Totally Natural Solutions, a company competing in the international market for hops extracts, and will be chemically analyzed, to compare with the extracts obtained from this project; (6) data processing step will be performed to identify the extracts with the highest overall yield and those with the highest concentration of desirable compounds, in order to establish a sequence of extraction conditions to obtain extracts with desired profiles. It is expected that the extracts obtained will present a similar chemical profile of extracts from competitors in the international market. Thus, it is expected to obtain extracts of similar quality and at an attractive price for potential customers of the Brazilian brewing market. (AU)