LAUSR

Bitter flavors and antioxidant activities are critical characteristics and indicators of beer's quality, respectively. To gain a better understanding of dry-hopped beer's bitterness, this work comprehensively evaluated the perceived bitterness intensity and bitterness attributes from aspect of beer aroma and nonvolatile bitter compounds using sensory analysis in two conditions: (1) with and (2) without nose clips. To quantify bitter and volatile compounds, the work conducted chromatographic analyses (HPLC, UPLC-MS, and GC-MS). Simultaneously, this work assesssed the antioxidant activity of commercially dry-hopped beers. Firstly, dry-hopped beer in this study contained abundant nonvolatile bitter compounds (hop bitter acids, polyphenols, and flavonoids) and aroma was validated using HPLC, UPLC-MS, and GC-MS methods. Moreover, the bitter-tasting perception test findings demonstrated that many dry-hopped beers had a higher bitterness intensity when evaluated without nose clip, whereas, this phenomenon was adverse in several ale beers. Additionally, the ‘lingering' and ‘harsh' characteristics were diminished, when beer aroma was blocked out (with nose clip) for dry-hopped beer. Meanwhile, most dry-hopped beers had greater antioxidant activity than ale beers (p < 0.05). This work revealed the bitterness complexity of dry-hopped beer, besides nonvolatile bitter compounds, beer aroma had impact on the perceived bitterness intensity and attributes. And dry-hopped beer had a relatively intense antioxidant capacity. This study facilitated the development of detailed knowledge about the assessment of bitter-tasting perceptions in dry-hopped beers and provided a basis for the development of functional beer benefiting human health. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.