ESTIMATION OF FREE FATTY ACIDS (C8-C18) IN WORT AND BEER

A procedure is described for estimating the free fatty acids in wort and beer by gas liquid chromatography. The free fatty acids with carbon number 8 to 18 are estimated simultaneously from one injection, and by including two internal standards the reproducibility of the method is maintained over the whole range. It has been demonstrated that other lipid materials such as glycerides and esters of fatty acids do not interfere with the assay. Compared with other methods, this procedure is fairly rapid and is suitable for routine purposes. The reproducibility of the method has been assessed by analysing replicate samples of wort and beer and the precision in estimating individual fatty acids is given.