Study on the Analysis of Malt Aroma Compounds and Their Correlation with Sensory Characteristics Evaluation Based on HS-SPME-GC-MS Coupled Technique

This study developed a method for the detection and analysis of 17 malt aroma compounds in malt, malt extract, and beer through headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Based on the principle that the chemical properties and structures of internal standard substances were either similar or belong to the same class of compounds, pyrazine-d4, hexanaldehyde-d12, and menthol were selected as the internal standard substances to enhance the reliability and accuracy of detection. The method with high sensitivity and good repeatability can be applied to detect volatiles in malt, wort, and beer, it was used to study the content, composition, and transformation of aroma compounds in malt and their correlation with sensory evaluation. The results showed certain differences in sensory evaluation between malt and wort, and the correlation with the content of aroma compounds in wort was more obvious than that in malt. The combination of the volatiles analysis methods and sensory evaluation can comprehensively and accurately evaluate the sensory characteristics and aroma of malt, and predict the malt aroma of finished products, thus advancing quality control to raw materials, providing data support and reference for malt selection and beer quality control.