Physicochemical, Electronic Nose and Tongue, Sensory Evaluation Determination Combined with Chemometrics to Characterize Ficus hirta Vahl. (Moraceae) Beer

Ficus hirta Vahl. (FHV) is widely consumed because of its functional and aromatic compounds. The incorporation of adjuncts contributes to the functional and flavor properties of beers. This study aims to enrich FHV extractions to develop beers with satisfactory physicochemical, antioxidant, and sensory characteristics. As a result, beers with 0.1 g/mL (P1) and 0.067 g/mL (P3) FHV extraction showed the highest values of physicochemical properties including °Brix, antioxidant activity, foam, lightness, and color intensity. Electronic nose and tongue results show that the aroma of P1 and taste of P3 were quite different from those of other FHV beers, resulting in substantially high consumer preference. The liking drivers of FHV beers were color appearance, hop and malty odor, sweet and malty flavor, thickness, and carbonation mouthfeel. However, the astringency flavor attribute was the disliking factor for beers. The results of this study may provide some references and guidelines for the development of Ficus hirta Vahl. functional beer to control the physicochemical, antioxidative, and sensory properties of the beer.

Analysis of the flavor of aged spirits made from sweet potato and rice by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Flavor patterns of sweet potato spirits (SPS) made from sul-deot manufactured by sweet potato showed an increasing tendency for aging from 64 to 128 weeks. When the SPS was blended with spirits made from sul-deot manufactured by rice in a 7:3 ratio, showing an increase for aging from 16 to 60 weeks, using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with solid-phase microextration. The main compounds showing increasing tendency of the SPS and blended spirits (BS) were iso-amyl alcohol, n-propanol. Especially, ethyl caprylate, and ethyl acetate increased in SPS. The results were cross-checked by an electronic nose. For the results of SPS in the flavor pattern, a decrease was noted by main ion fragments. For the BS, a decrease was noted. These cross-checked results were useful for controlling quality of aging spirits, especially SPS. Based on these results, it was considered that further experiments are needed to identify key compounds for accurate correlation analysis.