[Book Chapter] Beer And Esr Spin Trapping

The exposure of beer to light, heat, and oxygen negatively affects fl avor properties and causes a reduced storage stability of bottled beer. As the deteriorating processes involve shortlived highly reactive radicals, methods to detect the presence of these intermediates have gained signifi cant attention. In particular, detection of radicals in beer and beer-related model systems by the technique of spin trapping followed by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy has become an important tool for unraveling the mechanisms of degradation reactions in beer, for evaluating the flavor stability, and for predicting shelf life of beer.