Influence of the dealcoholisation by osmotic distillation on the sensory properties of different beer types.

A comparative study was performed to better understand the feasibility of osmotic distillation as a process to produce a low-alcohol beer. Four diverse commercial beers styles were considered. The regular and corresponding dealcoholised beers were compared. The quality attributes and the volatile compounds loss after the dealcoholisation were checked. The work focused on the sensory properties of the obtained samples. A trained panel evaluated how the chosen sensory descriptors were influenced by the treatment. The results of quality attributes and volatile compounds were in line with works previously published by the authors. Interestingly, the results highlighted that beer characterized by malty character is more suitable than pale lager to be dealcoholised by the osmotic distillation process. The low alcohol milk stout and stout flavour profile, especially in terms of taste, was like the corresponding regular beer. Osmotic distillation was demonstrated to be a feasible process to produce low-alcohol beer. © Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2020.