Determination of the botanical origin of hops (Humulus lupulus L.) using different analytical techniques in combination with statistical methods

Beer flavour and aroma depend mostly on the hop variety used in the brewing process. For this reason it is of crucial importance for brewers to be certain about the botanical origin of the hop variety. Metabolic fingerprinting is one of the approaches that can be used for determination of the botanical origin of many agricultural and food products. The aim of the current work was to differentiate between the five most important hop varieties in Slovenia. Gas chromatography, high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were carried out in combination with three different chemometric methods – principal component analysis, regularized discriminant analysis and hierarchical clustering – on 121 hop samples. The chemometric classification of the hop varieties was obtained with nearly 100% success. The best results were obtained with GC and HPLC data, within one year of harvesting. Copyright © 2016 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling