A new strategy for using banana as an ingredient in the brewing process

Abstract

Beer is a traditionally fermented beverage made from malted grains of barley, hops, yeast, and water, while banana is an important food crop cultivated widely in tropical and subtropical areas and is one of the major fruits in Brazil. Besides, the banana is also very favorable to food industry (e.g. fermented beverages) due to its rich content on soluble solids, presence of minerals, and providing low acidity. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate a new strategy for using banana as adjunct to increase the fermentable sugars and to supply a specific aroma in pilot-plant brewing experiments. For this, static fermentations were conducted in a 180 L cylindrical-conical reactor using 140 L as working volume. Addition of banana was evaluated when changing the concentration of the wort from 10 to 12 ºP and from 10 to 13.5 ºP (ºP is the weight of the extract or the sugar equivalent in 100 g solution, at 20 ºC) and fermented under a constant temperature of 10 and 12.5 ºC, respectively. The results showed that the increment in the initial sugar concentration (12 to 13.5 ºP, due to the use of banana juice as adjunct), and in the temperature (10 to 12.5 ºC), increased approximately 17% the ethanol productivity. Thus, it was concluded that by using of simple preparation techniques of banana juice, banana can be used as adjunct in brewing processes, helping in the development of new products as well as in the elaboration of more concentrated worts when compared the traditional brewing worts.