Abstract:
Beer is rich in a variety of nutrients and functional components, including carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins, and phenolic compounds. It is the third beverage product in terms of consumption and sales after water and tea. Beer output in industry scale reached 50.61 million tons in China in 2013, but 34.11 million tons in 2020, indicating a gradual decline from 2014 to 2020. Crafted beers gradually begin emerging from abroad, with the increase of consumption level, particularly rich in the mouth feel and flavor. Alternatively, tea is rich in nutrients and substances (tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharides, and theanine) with diverse biological properties, including high antioxidant activity, anti-aging, and lipid-lowering effects. There are many tea resources in China, where the output ranks first all over the world. Therefore, the combination of tea and beer can be expected to enhance the tea flavor of beer for better health function. In this study, oolong tea was added in the boiling stage and the main fermentation stage of the beer brewing process, thereby investigating the effects of different addition on physicochemical properties, antioxidant capacity, storage stability, and sensory properties of beer products. The main results were as follows: The fermentation rate of beer increased significantly when adding 0.3% (m/v) oolong tea at the boiling stage (boiling addition group) and the main fermentation stage (main fermentation addition group), compared with the controlled group. The DPPH radical scavenging ability, ABTS+ radical scavenging ability, and iron ion reducing ability of two products in the tea beer (boiling addition group and main fermentation addition group) increased to 82.74% and 89.21%, 41.53% and 51.49%, and 36.49 mg/L FeSO4 and 43.83 mg/L FeSO4, respectively. The anti-aging ability of finished tea beer was improved during storage. The contents of caffeine (CAF) and catechins increased significantly in the tea beer, including epigallocatechin (EGC), catechin (C), epicatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin gallate (EC), epigallocatechin gallate (GCG), epigallocatechin gallate (ECG). The contents of total phenol and EGCG in tea beer samples from the main fermentation supplemental group were significantly higher than those of the controlled group and boiling supplemental group (P < 0.05), where were 734.40 mg/L and 8.43 mg/L, respectively. The sensory evaluation showed that the addition of tea improved the tea aroma and tea taste of products, where the coordination of tea aroma, tea taste and wine body of beer in the main fermentation addition group presented the best among the three beer products. The scale-up beer production also confirmed the feasibility of tea beer brewing. This finding can provide a promising reference to develop tea beer products.