Microbiota and metabolites of aged bottled gueuze beers converge to the same composition

Gueuze beers are prepared by mixing young and old lambic beers and are bottle-refermented spontaneously
for aging. The present study analyzed the microbiota and metabolites present in gueuze beers
that were aged between a few months and up to 17 years. Yeasts were cultivated from all beers sampled,
but bacteria could not be grown from beers older than 5 years. Lactic acid and ethyl lactate concentrations
increased steadily during aging, whereas ethanol concentrations remained constant. The concentrations
of isoamyl acetate and ethyl decanoate decreased during the aging process. Hence, ethyl
lactate and ethyl decanoate can be considered as positive and negative gueuze beer-aging metabolite
biomarkers, respectively. Nevertheless, considerable bottle-to-bottle variation in the metabolite profiles
was found, which hindered the generalization of the effects seen during the aging of the gueuze beers
examined, but which illustrated the unique character of the lambic beers. The present results further
indicate that gueuze beers are preferably aged for less than 10 years.

Publication year:2015

Keywords:Gueuze beer, Spontaneous bottle refermentation, Beer aging, Microbiota, Metabolites, Dekkera

CSS-citation score:1

Accessibility:Open