The biogenic amine content of beer; the effect of barley, malting and brewing on amine concentration

The effects of barley variety, malting, brewing technology, brewer's yeast and bacterial contamination on the biogenic amine content of beer have been investigated. Our results showed that barley variety had a detectable effe ct on amine content, and this was also reflected in the amino acid decarbox ylase activities of the samples. Investigations established that histamine in malt did not originate from barley but was due to microbial contaminatio n. During wort processing, significant increases of agmatine and putrescine occurred, together with decreases for spermidine and spermine. As the hist amine synthesising ability of different Lactobacillus strains are quite dif ferent, there was no correlation between the histamine level of beer and th e bacterial contamination of wort and pitching yeast, respectively. Total a mine concentrations of bottled beer are significantly influenced by the bre wing technology and to a much lesser extent by the applied barley variety. The histamine content of beer is a good indicator for hygienic conditions o f barley storage, malting and brewing, as the histamine content of the prod uct does not originate from barley or from the malt.