Artisanal fortified beers: Brewing, enrichment, HPLC-DAD analysis and preliminary screening of antioxidant and enzymatic inhibitory activities

In this study an artisanal “Porter style” beer has been enriched with diverse natural bioactive substances, following all-grain brewing method. Common beer generally contains a poor content of phenolic acids which confers a low antioxidant power and nutritional value, also due to the presence of ethanol. However in this work we aimed to enrich beer with different flavonoids and other food supplements like taurine, resveratrol and caffeine, thus enhancing its nutritional value and energizing properties. A series of flavonoid/phenol-enriched artisanal beers have been prepared, then sample of each has been tested in vitro to evaluate antioxidant activity, chelating power and enzymatic inhibition capacity. Beer samples were also analysed with HPLC-DAD system to determinate flavonoid and phenol contents. Results show increased nutritional values and significant antioxidant properties in comparison with not-fortified beer as control.