Analysis of purine content in beer according to fermentation temperature

발효 온도에 따른 맥주의 퓨린 함량 분석

Abstract

Beer is the most popular alcoholic fermentation product, but its high purine content has been known to be associated with hyperuricemia and gout. In this study, we examined whether the purine content of beer could be lowered by changing the fermentation temperature during beer-brewing. We brewed beers at different temperatures, $10^{\circ}C$ and $20^{\circ}C$, that are two typical beer-brewing conditions for bottom- and top-fermentation, respectively, and the contents of the representative purines, adenine, guanine, and xanthine in each beer were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. As a result, the total purine content of the beer fermented at $10^{\circ}C$ was lower than that of fermented beer at $20^{\circ}C$. Especially, the content of adenine was lowered significantly.

맥주는 가장 대중적인 알코올 발효주이지만 퓨린(purine) 함량이 높아 고요산혈증 및 통풍 발생과 연관이 있다고 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 맥주 발효 온도를 달리함으로써 맥주의 퓨린 함량을 낮출 수 있는지 알아보았다. 맥주 제조의 주된 발효법인 상면 발효와 하면 발효에서 주로 사용되는 $20^{\circ}C$와 $10^{\circ}C$ 온도에서 맥주를 발효한 후, 각각에서 대표적 퓨린 화합물인 adenine, guanine 그리고 xanthine들의 함량을 high performance liquid chromatography 방법으로 측정하였다. 그 결과, $10^{\circ}C$ 발효 맥주가 $20^{\circ}C$ 발효 맥주에 비해 총 퓨린 함량이 낮았으며, 특히 adenine의 함량이 의미있게 낮아져 있음을 확인하였다.

Fig. 1. HPLC profile of standard purines and beer samples.

Fig. 2. Standards for purine quantification.

Fig. 3. Contents of purines in the beers fermented at two different temperatures.

Fig. 4. Comparison of purine contents with commercial beers.

Table 1. Purine contents in the laboratory-brewed beers at two different temperature and commercial beers