The market for alcohol-free beer has undergone a unique, global rise in volume of consumption and production during the last decade. Consumers seeking out better mental and physical wellbeing are opting to drink less alcohol, giving rise to this beverage trend. Yet for researchers and industry professionals crafting the product, it can be a challenge to closely replicate the pleasant taste of alcoholic beer. Alcohol-free Beer: From Production to Consumer Perception covers this unique, emerging market segment. It begins with introductory content and definitions before covering the production process, with a focus on fermentation methods. Nutritional aspects, flavor, and sensory characteristics of the end product as well as consumer perceptions are also covered. Alcohol-free Beer: From Production to Consumer Perception is the first academic book on the market to exclusively cover non alcoholic and low ABV beer. This book will be particularly useful to researchers interested in alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, fermentation, anc consumer behavior, especioally as it related to the consumption of alcohol (or lack thereof). Brewing chemists and beverage industry scientists hoping to create new alcohol-free beverages will especially benefit from this book.
1. An introduction to Alcohol-Free Beers: Evolution of production
methods
2. The alcohol-free beer market: Definitions, global trends and perspectives
3. Biological methods of Production I: The role of yeast.
4. Biological methods of production II: Modified fermentation conditions
5. Physical methods I: Distillation techniques
6. Physical methods II: Filtration techniques
7. Shelf life and packaging
8. Origins and development of flavors in Alcohol-free beer I: Positive
flavors
9. Origins and development of flavors in Alcohol-free beers II: Undesirable
flavors.
10. The role of ethanol in alcoholic drinks (Taste, aroma modulation, body,
trigeminal)
11. Sensory aspects
12. Consumer perception, preferences and emotions
13. Nutritional aspects
14. Choice of raw materials
15. Sustainability and the future
Elisabeth Koussissi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Wine, Vine and Beverage Sciences, of the University of West Attica in Athens, Greece. She holds a PhD in Sensory Science from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK, where she studied a broad set of red wines from Greece on their sensory as well as their compositional aspects. She afterwards worked in the Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Department of Oenology & Beverage Technology, as Post Doc for a programme on the Development of a technology for the accelerated aging of wines and spirits”, and in Strathclyde University, as a research fellow, contributing to several research projects and carrying out teaching for the International MSc courses of Food Biotechnology” and Food Science and Microbiology”. From 2007 - 2018, she worked in the Research & Development department of Heineken B.V. in the Netherlands, first as Sensory and later as Flavor Scientist. In that period, Elisabeth participated and led multiple research and development projects, always in close cooperation with production and the Heineken Operating Companies, but also with academia and research institutes. During that period, she worked extensively in the Low and No- alcohol categories, and took part in the product development of several products belonging on that portfolio. Her research interests remain in the sensory and flavour science of foods and drinks, with particular interest in linking the production process to the flavour of the products.
José Piornos, PhD, is a researcher in flavour chemistry. PhD in Food & Nutritional Sciences from the University of Reading (UK) in 2020 about the identification, sensory characteristics and formation kinetics of aroma compounds contributing to the worty attributes in alcohol-free beers, in partnership with The Heineken Company. He worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at Reading for a project about the interactions between soy protein matrices and sulphur meaty aroma compounds. In January 2022 he joined INRAE, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, and more precisely the CSGA (Centre for Taste and Feeding Behaviour) in Dijon. Since then, his research interest has focused on the role of food matrix composition on the release of flavour compounds and the consequent effect on perception. He currently leads a research project in which the aim is to understand the role of ethanol in the release of aroma compounds in alcoholic drinks, and how its absence impacts the perception of alcohol-free drinks.
