Sensory analysis of commercial beer filled in different packings
Beer is the most sold alcoholic beverage in Brazil. Nowadays the country is the third on the world ranking of beer production. Beer is kind of sensitive product due to its volatile and nonvolatile compounds, so the balance of these compounds is essential for the acceptance and the quality of this beverage. Thus, it is important its correct filling process so that the final product maintain its adequate characteristics. The most indicated packages to fill this alcoholic beverage are glass and aluminum cans and it is essential to determine if this beverage sensorial characteristics are changed because of the use of different packaging. Therefore, the objective of this work was to define if there are differences in commercial beer of the type larger of same brand, filled in longneck glass bottles (355 mL) and in aluminum cans (350 mL). To do so, three sensorial tests with 50 non-trained evaluators were made: 1) triangle test for similarity (β= 0,05; α= 0,001 e pd = 50%); 2) acceptance test through 9-point hedonic scale for color, aroma, gasification, flavor as well as global acceptance, and purchase intention; 3) flavor intensity. In relation to the results, no more than 50% of the population can notice the difference between the products. The acceptance of the beers regarding all the attributes, global acceptance and purchase intention was not influenced by the package, and both beers were well accepted. However, the aluminum-canned beer showed more flavor intensity. Therefore, it can be concluded that the package used to fill the beer has little impact on the sensory characteristics.