BiQnet - Beer Quality Network for the Technologically Grounded Assurance of Attractive Beer Foam

The foam quality is a crucial characteristic of beer that influences the initial visual impression and the sensory perception of the aroma profile. Therefore, breweries strive to produce beers with consistently high foam quality. One challenge is that beer is made from agricultural raw materials, whose composition is subject to natural fluctuations. These fluctuations, which can significantly impact all quality parameters, must be compensated by the brewmaster using his technological knowledge to ensure consistently good beer quality. Small and medium-sized breweries in Austria compete qualitatively with large corporate breweries in the market with their beers. Against this background, the brewmasters of small and medium-sized breweries rely on simple and fast analysis methods that provide them with an objective basis for necessary technological interventions. Such an analysis method for quantifying foam-active substances in beer is now to be established.
The project aims to develop, for the first time, a validated analytical procedure for the rapid and specific spectrophotometric quantification of foam-active substances based on the Bradford method. This requires the systematic investigation of raw material proteins from barley malt, which are extracted from the grain using different methods. The extracts must prove their suitability as reference proteins. Subsequently, the method will be validated. Once the method is successfully validated and verified and implemented in the participating breweries, the breweries can monitor the quantitative development of foam-active substances throughout the brewing process. Building on this, the partners of the innovation network will systematically develop a deeper understanding of the technological relationships between raw materials, brewing technology, and released foam-active substances through comparative analysis. This allows them to optimize the brewing process through targeted measures to improve foam quality.
The modified Bradford method and selected results of the comparative technological analysis will be presented to colleagues to enable other breweries to freely use the findings. This analysis method contributes to ensuring that every small and medium-sized private brewery can assert itself regionally with excellent product quality against the dominant corporate breweries in the market. The members of the innovation network want to establish a stable network called BiQnet (Beer Quality Network) for knowledge exchange and the scientifically supported expansion of their brewing technological expertise. In this sense, further R&D projects are planned. In the long term, BiQnet aims to showcase Austria's beer competence in the private brewery sector externally as a beacon. The collective added value achieved through network work should also have an impact beyond the funded network and contribute to strengthening the entire industry.