Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, California, 95616, USA.
Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, California, 95616, USA.
J Food Sci. 2021 Mar;86(3):1048-1057. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.15607. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
The compositional and sensorial profiles of traditional American meads were determined using standard enological, volatile, and descriptive analyses. Forty-one commercial meads produced by 35 meaderies across 20 states were selected to encompass a broad product range. The meads were analyzed for ethanol content, residual sugar, pH, titratable acidity, acetic acid, and free and total sulfur dioxide. Forty-three volatile compounds (alcohols, esters, acids, terpenes, aldehydes, aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.) were tentatively identified using a nontargeted HS-SPME-GC-MS method. Ethyl octanoate, phenylethyl alcohol, ethyl decanoate, and ethyl acetate were the most relatively abundant volatile compounds across the sample set. A trained panel (n = 11) evaluated each mead using descriptive analysis and the chemical and sensory analyses were compared. Acidity, sweetness, and cloying and viscous mouthfeel sensations, and alcoholic heat were the most influential sensory attributes and were driven by titratable acidity, residual sugar, and ethanol content, respectively. Ethyl octanoate and ethyl decanoate were correlated with manure aroma, phenylethyl alcohol with yeast and green aromas, and ethyl acetate with citrus, solvent, and green olive aromas. This research further elucidates the empirical relationship between the chemical composition and sensory profiles of commercial meads. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This work provides the mead industry with further understanding of the compositional drivers of the sensory profiles of commercial meads and demonstrates product categories (dry, semi-sweet, sweet) do not necessarily indicate compositional or sensory attributes.
采用标准的葡萄酒分析、挥发性分析和描述性分析，确定了传统美式蜂蜜酒的组成和感官特征。从全美 20 个州的 35 家蜂蜜酒厂中选择了 41 种商业蜂蜜酒，以涵盖广泛的产品范围。对蜂蜜酒的乙醇含量、残留糖分、pH 值、可滴定酸度、乙酸和游离及总二氧化硫进行了分析。使用非靶向 HS-SPME-GC-MS 方法，初步鉴定了 43 种挥发性化合物（醇类、酯类、酸类、萜烯类、醛类、芳烃等）。在整个样品组中，乙基辛酸酯、苯乙醇、乙基癸酸酯和乙酸乙酯是最丰富的挥发性化合物。一个经过培训的小组（n = 11）使用描述性分析评估了每种蜂蜜酒，比较了化学分析和感官分析。酸度、甜度、发腻和粘稠的口感以及酒精热是最有影响力的感官属性，分别由可滴定酸度、残留糖分和乙醇含量驱动。乙基辛酸酯和乙基癸酸酯与粪便香气相关，苯乙醇与酵母和绿色香气相关，乙酸乙酯与柑橘、溶剂和绿色橄榄香气相关。这项研究进一步阐明了商业蜂蜜酒化学成分和感官特征之间的经验关系。实际应用：这项工作为蜂蜜酒行业提供了对商业蜂蜜酒感官特征的化学成分驱动因素的进一步了解，并表明产品类别（干型、半甜型、甜型）不一定表明组成或感官属性。
