Exploring the flavor life cycle of beers with varying alcohol content

Decreasing alcohol in beer and increasing the pleasure of lower alcohol beers is a potential way to limit total alcohol consumption. Consumers’ willingness to drink alcohol-reduced beers is mainly limited by unfavorable flavor characteristics that arise during consumption. To investigate the temporal flavor dominance during consumption, we analyzed the five most dominant beer flavors from nine different beers among three types of beer with varying alcohol content to assess the Flavor Life Cycle. Results show that beers with different alcohol content displayed similar flavor dominance (e.g., bitterness) and displayed differences in worty-off flavor, malty flavor, and astringency. In alcohol-free beers, worty-off flavor was most pronounced in dominating between 5 and 30 s and malty flavor increased after swallowing. For bitterness and astringency, higher alcohol content resulted in higher flavor dominance, especially prior to swallowing (≤40 sec). Based on these findings, we provide some brief advice to minimize unfavorable flavor experience during consumption of beer with lower alcohol. For now, consumers who want to enjoy beers with lower alcohol should consider flavor changes and focus on the favored and defocus on the less favored flavors.