The functional properties of myofibrils depend largely on their surface characteristics. Changes in surface characteristics of myofibrils after chemical oxidation were elucidated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy. Myofibrils were oxidized by a hydroxyl radical generating system. Lipid oxidation and phospholipid distribution were altered during the oxidative processing. Results from particle size analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and salt solubility indicated that protein cross-linking and fragmentation occurred during the oxidation of myofibrils. XPS analysis of C 1s, N 1s, and O 1s spectra suggested that surface chemical function concentrations changed significantly because of the modification of amino acid side chains that rendered protein cross-links and fragmentation and phospholipid alteration. Analysis of the correlation between the surface chemical composition and parameters of particle size distributions confirmed that protein carbonylation and phospholipid alteration were involved in protein surface modification. Results of the microstructure analysis were in agreement with those of particle size and XPS analysis.

Four kinds of worts with different nitrogen compositions were used to examine their effects on fermentation performance of brewer's yeast. The absorption pattern of peptides with different molecular weights (Mw) in yeast cells during wort fermentation was also investigated. Results showed that both the nitrogen composition and level had significant impacts on the yeast biomass accumulation, ethanol production, and free amino nitrogen and sugars consumption rates. Worts supplemented with wheat gluten hydrolysates increased 11.5% of the biomass, 5.9% of fermentability, and 0.6% of ethanol content and decreased 25.6% of residual sugar content during wort fermentation. Moreover, yeast cells assimilated peptides with various Mw differently during fermentation. Peptides with Mw below 1 kDa decreased quickly, and the rate of assimilation was more than 50% at the end of fermentation, while those with Mw above 10 kDa almost could not be assimilated by yeast. All these results further indicated that the level and composition of wort nitrogen had significant impacts on the growth and fermentation performances of brewer's yeast, and peptides with Mw below 1 kDa were one of preferred nitrogen sources for brewer's yeast.

Significant positive correlations between wort fermentability and the assimilation of Lys and His under normal-gravity and high-gravity conditions indicated that Lys and His were the key amino acids for lager yeast during beer brewing. In order to obtain insight into the roles of Lys and His in nitrogen regulation, the influences of Lys, His and their mixture supplementations on the fermentation performance and nitrogen metabolism in lager yeast during high-gravity fermentation were further investigated in the present study. Results showed that Lys and His supplementations improved yeast growth, wort fermentability, ethanol yield and the formation of flavor volatiles. Lys supplementation up-regulated Ssy1p–Ptr3p–Ssy5p (SPS)-regulated genes (LYP1, HIP1, BAP2 and AGP1) dramatically compared to nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR)-sensitive genes (GAP1 and MEP2), whereas His supplementation activated SPS-regulated genes slightly in exponential phase, and repressed NCR-sensitive genes significantly throughout the fermentation. Lys and His supplementations increased the consumption of Glu and Phe, and decreased the consumption of Ser, Trp and Arg. Moreover, Lys and His supplementations exhibited similar effects on the fermentation performance, and were more effective than their mixture supplementation when the same dose was kept. These results demonstrate that both Lys and His are important amino acids for yeast nitrogen metabolism and fermentation performance.

High gravity (HG) or very high gravity (VHG) brewing has become popular in modern breweries due to its economic and product quality advantages. However, there are the negative impacts such as the fermentation performance of brewer’s yeast in HG or VHG wort, which are closely related to changes in cell physiological activity. In the present study, 3 kinds of worts, with different gravities, were used to examine the systematic effects on fermentation performance and physiological activity of lager yeast FBY009505 (Saccharomyces pastorianus) and ale yeast FBY0099 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), as well as the resulting beer flavor. Results showed that the responses of FBY009505 and FBY0099 to the HG or VHG worts were similar. The specific fermentation rate and viability of cropped yeast of FBY009505 and FBY0099 were decreased with increasing wort gravity. The increased wort gravity resulted in the increase of energy charge and the decrease of α-glucosides transport rate and glycolytic enzyme activities. Moreover, the environmental stresses in the HG or VHG wort showed a higher inhibitory activity against α-glucoside transport than glycolytic enzymes. The content of intracellular trehalose and glycerol of FBY009505 and FBY0099 increased with the increase in wort gravity. The results from this study provided a potential means to systematically understand the physiology of brewer’s yeast under HG or VHG conditions.

The aim of this work was to further investigate the glycolysis performance of lager and ale brewer’s yeasts under different fermentation temperature using a combined analysis of metabolic flux, glycolytic enzyme activities, and flux control. The results indicated that the fluxes through glycolytic pathway decreased with the change of the fermentation temperature from 15 °C to 10 °C, which resulted in the prolonged fermentation times. The maximum activities (Vmax) of hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), and pyruvate kinase (PK) at key nodes of glycolytic pathway decreased with decreasing fermentation temperature, which was estimated to have different control extent (22–84 %) on the glycolytic fluxes in exponential or flocculent phase. Moreover, the decrease of Vmax of PFK or PK displayed the crucial role in down-regulation of flux in flocculent phase. In addition, the metabolic state of ale strain was more sensitive to the variation of temperature than that of lager strain. The results of the metabolic flux and nodes control analysis in brewer’s yeasts under different fermentation temperature may provide an alternative approach to regulate glycolytic flux by changing Vmax and improve the production efficiency and beer quality.

Normal gravity wort and high gravity wort with different nitrogen levels were used to examine their effects on the fermentation performance of brewer’s yeast and the formation of flavor volatiles. Results showed that both the wort gravity and nitrogen level had significant impacts on the growth rate, viability, flocculation, and gene expression of brewer’s yeast and the levels of flavor volatiles. The sugar (glucose, maltose, and maltotriose) consumption rates and net cell growth decreased when high gravity worts were used, while these increased with increasing nitrogen level. Moreover, high gravity resulted in lower expression levels of ATF1, BAP2, BAT1, HSP12, and TDH, whereas the higher nitrogen level caused higher expression levels for these genes. Furthermore, the lower nitrogen level resulted in increases in the levels of higher alcohols and esters at high wort gravity. All these results demonstrated that yeast physiology and flavor balance during beer brewing were significantly affected by the wort gravity and nitrogen level.

The phenolic profiles and corresponding antioxidant activities of 34 commercial beers in Chinese markets were evaluated. Results found remarkable variations in total and individual phenolic contents as well as antioxidant activity across beer brands. Gallic and ferulic acids were the dominant phenolic compounds identified in the tested beer samples and both of them accounted for >50% of the total phenolic compounds. Results from Pearson correlation analysis suggested that five antioxidant activity assays positively correlated well (p < 0.01) with each other and showed significant positive correlations (p < 0.05) with (+)-catechin, protocatechuic, and caffeic acids contents. Stepwise linear regression further demonstrated that different phenolic components responsible for beer antioxidant activity were dependent on the method used, and that ferulic acid, syringic acid, (+)-catechin, caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid and (−)-epicatechin together made 55.0–88.1% of contribution to the antioxidant activity of beer.

The objective of this study was to investigate the changes in free amino acids (FAA) composition by supplementing three commercial proteases (Neutrase, Flavorzyme and Protamex) at the beginning of wort mashing, and monitoring the effects on the assimilation pattern of FAA and fermentation performance of lager yeast (Saccharomyces pastorianus) during normal and high gravity fermentations. Proteases supplementation significantly improved the extract yield and FAA level of mashed worts. Normal gravity worts treated with Flavorzyme and Neutrase exhibited higher fermentability, ethanol production and flavor volatiles concentration compared to the control worts, while these beneficial effects were observed in high gravity worts treated with Protamex and Neutrase. The reason for the above results is proposed to be the change in the assimilation pattern of FAA in lager yeast with increased wort gravity, especially for the improved assimilation ratios of Leu, Arg, Phe, His, Asp and Val. In normal gravity fermentations, there were strong correlations between the assimilation amounts of Lys, Leu, Arg and His and fermentability, while in high gravity fermentations, these good correlations were found with only Lys and His. The present study suggested that optimizing the composition of FAA by supplementing proteases during wort mashing was beneficial to beer brewing for improving fermentation performance of lager yeast and flavor volatiles formation.Highlights► Worts treated with proteases exhibited higher extract yield and FAN level. ► Normal and high gravity worts treated with Neutrase showed better fermentation performance. ► Assimilation ratios of Leu, Arg, Phe, His, Asp and Val were improved with increased wort gravity. ► Assimilation amounts of Lys, Leu, Arg and His correlated with normal gravity wort fermentability. ► Assimilation amounts of Lys and His correlated with high gravity wort fermentability.