Effect of spray‐drying or freeze‐drying on the physicochemical parameters, antioxidant activity, and volatile components of craft beer.

Summary: Converting craft beer to a powder form allows the concentration of phenolic and volatile compounds. In this study, craft beer was brewed in laboratory brewing equipment and converted to a powder using freeze‐drying and spray‐drying processes. When the freeze‐dried powder was dissolved in water, its physicochemical properties were identical to those of craft beer. Freeze‐drying effectively encapsulated the bioactive compounds in craft beer, with an encapsulation rate of 99.6%, which was 27.6% higher than that of spray‐drying. Headspace solid‐phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the esters were effectively retained after freeze‐drying and had the highest retention of 90% for ethyl hexanoate, whereas spray‐drying resulted in the loss of most of the esters. Spray‐dried particles were all spherical, whereas lyophilized particles were irregularly shaped. The particle size ranged from 6.28 to 12.15 μm for spray‐dried powders and from 14.19 to 50.97 μm for lyophilized powders. The findings indicate that both encapsulation methods are effective for the preparation of craft beer powder. However, freeze‐drying can encapsulate the bioactive and volatile compounds in craft beer more effectively than spray‐drying and aid in the better retention of craft beer characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]