The impact of pirodextrin addition to improve physicochemical parameters of sorghum beer

The traditional sorghum beer brewed by African communities differs from the traditional beer obtained from barley, mainly in the absence of hops and in a higher acidity level. People diagnosed with celiac disease find it as an alternative option when enjoying a good beer; however, some of the technological differences could be improved with the use of pyrodextrins obtained from the same cereal. In this work the use of pyrodextrins obtained by a treatment at 120 °C with acid during 360 min is proposed. A composite central design was made varying the concentration of pyrodextrins between 5 and 15 g/L and hop between 30 and 60 mg/L. The results indicate that the use of pyrodextrins up to a concentration of 10 g/L improves α-acid utilisation, bitterness and viscosity of the drink, achieving values similar to a typical lager beer obtained from barley. For 10 g/L pyrodextrin addition the increase in the wort and beer viscosity was 4.4% and 4.9%, respectively.