Beverages

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is a non-destructive technique for rapid and accurate food analysis. FT-NIR analysis requires no solvents and is particularly suitable for routine quality control applications. This study evaluated the application of Fourier-transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy for estimating key physicochemical parameters in beer, including pH, final gravity, alcohol content, acidity, bitterness units (IBU), and α-acid content, in finished products and during late fermentation and maturation. A dataset of 350 samples was used for calibration and an independent hold-out subset of 50 samples was used for validation. Spectral data were collected with quartz cuvettes of 1.0, 0.5, and 0.1 cm path lengths, and a NIRA reflectance accessory (0.1 cm). Models were developed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression with 10 latent variables and processed via Spectrum Quant software. All configurations produced calibration R² values above 0.84. Baseline corrections with first and second derivatives were tested. While most models exhibited satisfactory calibration performance, only NIRA maintained satisfactory performance in the independent hold-out validation subset, with regression slopes closest to unity and comparatively low standard errors. The model was applied as an exploratory case study to monitor physicochemical changes during a single fermentation and maturation process, showing no statistically significant differences from conventional analytical methods.

Cereal-derived ingredients offer one approach to diversifying fermented dairy beverages, yet their incorporation into skim goat milk systems remains insufficiently characterized. This exploratory study characterized four fermented skim goat milk formulations, each represented by a single production batch: a millet-free control (C), O1 containing sprouted millet dried at 38 °C, O2 containing sprouted millet subjected to wok thermal treatment, and O3 containing a commercially processed non-sprouted millet ingredient. The millet ingredients were incorporated after fermentation at an addition rate of 10 g per 100 mL of fermented milk base. Physicochemical characteristics, rheological profiles, microbial counts, and volatile profiles were determined, with HS-SPME-GC-MS used for volatile analysis. Moisture content was 92.1% in C and 80.9–83.8% in the millet-containing formulations, whereas water activity remained high and varied only slightly, from 0.9945 to 0.9971. The recorded rheological profiles displayed shear-thinning behavior; however, substantial technical variability occurred in the low-shear region and these observations were not used to establish formulation-specific rheological advantages. Presumptive streptococci were present at 7.43–8.08 log CFU/mL and lactobacilli at 8.08–8.39 log CFU/mL. In the analyzed batches, O1 showed the highest normalized relative peak areas of tentatively assigned 2,3-butanedione (18.66%) and nonanal (9.58%), whereas O2 showed the highest normalized relative peak areas of tentatively assigned octanoic acid (25.77%) and decanoic acid (22.20%). The four formulations displayed different batch-specific analytical profiles. Because each formulation was produced as a single batch, the observations cannot be interpreted as reproducible treatment effects and require confirmation using independently produced batches.

This review presents the scientific and technical aspects of mead production, focusing on honey characterization, medieval and modern mead production and sensory profiles. It highlights the challenges and potential opportunities for optimization of mead production, emphasizing the need for further research into honey’s chemical properties and their influence on mead’s sensory attributes. However, the bioactive profile, aroma composition (flavor), taste, health-promoting properties and overall quality of alcoholic mead composition have been scarcely studied. Moreover, this review also covers the characterization of the production process for low-alcohol mead and studies related to the sensory evaluation of mead. The study concludes that understanding these constituents and technological steps is crucial for enhancing mead quality and consumer appeal.