Alternative Beverages Produced in a Brewery: How to Manage Analytical Testing

Alternative beverages produced in a brewery are fermented, acidified, or non-alcoholic products made using, in whole or in part, equipment and processes normally employed in beer production. They may include grain-based beverages, plant-based beverages, infusions, and fermented products other than beer.

A brewery’s brewhouse can serve as the starting point for products very different from beer. Fermenters, heating and cooling systems, tanks, and packaging lines can be used to develop acidified beverages, grain-based products, or non-alcoholic infusions.

This opportunity is explored in depth in the article“Alternative Beverages for Breweries,” published by the BrauBeviale editorial team on October 21, 2025. The authors - Andreas Brandl, Florian Huber, and Lukas Schappals of Doemens - analyze the possibilities available to breweries seeking to complement their traditional production with new products, leveraging the equipment and expertise already in-house.

Diversification, however, is not merely a matter of adapting a new recipe to existing equipment. When the product changes, so does the sample to be analyzed.

The use of a brewery’s equipment does not automatically make the product a brewing matrix: the beverage’s composition, in fact, determines the sampling methods, potential interferences, and the applicability of the analytical method. For this reason, it is useful to ask which controls developed for beer and wort remain relevant when the brewing process is applied to non-traditional products.

Based on the production examples discussed at BrauBeviale, we will analyze below the specific implications for analytical control in breweries.

The equipment in a brewery can be used for operations that are also applicable to other liquid food products: mixing, heat treatment, extraction, filtration, fermentation, cooling, and packaging. The brewhouse allows for the mixing of water and grains, the management of different temperature profiles, the extraction of soluble components, and the preparation of a substrate for fermentation. This diversification enables the production of various types of sour or blended beers, oat-based beverages, or Boricha - a Korean non-alcoholic beverage made by infusing roasted barley.

The production steps may therefore remain familiar to the brewmaster: mashing, heat treatment, filtration, fermentation, and blending. The resulting sample, however, may have characteristics very different from those of a wort or a beer.

Fibers, proteins, lipids, and suspended solids can increase the viscosity and heterogeneity of oat-based beverages, making it more difficult to obtain a representative and reproducible sample. An infusion of roasted grains may have an intense color and contain compounds extracted during heat treatment. A beverage acidified with microorganisms other than traditional brewer’s yeast may exhibit unusual fermentation dynamics and pH decline patterns.

Transferring the production process does not automatically imply that the analytical method is transferable. Each new matrix requires a specific evaluation of sampling, the measurement range, and potential interferences.

To establish effective quality control for alternative beverages, it is essential to consider three key elements in relation to one another: process, matrix, and analytical method. The process encompasses the operations involved in transforming raw materials -such as heat treatment, fermentation, and packaging - which may be similar even across different products. The process generates a specific food matrix - that is, a system consisting of the analyte and the product’s other components. The sample to be analyzed is taken from this matrix. Viscosity, turbidity, lipid content, proteins, and suspended particles can affect the representativeness of the sample and the reliability of the result. It is precisely on the basis of this matrix that the analytical method is defined - that is, the specific procedure best suited to determining a single parameter.

CDR BeerLab^® is a system for analyzing beer, wort, and water, which can be used to monitor the various stages of the production process. It allows analyses to be performed directly at the brewery using pre-vialed reagents, providing rapid access to results that inform production decisions.

The parameters available in the CDR BeerLab^® analytical panel are also useful in alternative production contexts, provided their applicability to the specific matrix is evaluated in advance. This preliminary analysis must verify the adequacy of sampling procedures, the measurement range, and potential chemical and physical interferences. It should be noted that the measurements performed with CDR BeerLab^® support the optimization of the production process and do not replace official analytical methods or legal requirements.

Even when changing the beverage, many of the phenomena observed during production remain familiar: starch conversion, sugar consumption, acidification, fermentation, alcohol production, and yeast metabolic activity. The analytical experience gained in the brewery can therefore be applied to new production processes, starting with the production decision to be made.

CDR BeerLab^® allows you to determine parameters such as starch, fermentable sugars, and yeast vitality. Sugar analysis can provide more specific information than density measurement alone, since samples with similar densities may have different compositions and fermentability.

Starch analysis allows you to track the evolution of carbohydrates, while measuring yeast viability provides insights into the yeast’s metabolic state, especially when evaluating cell recovery for subsequent fermentations.

When applied to non-traditional matrices, these tests allow a significant portion of the experience already gained in the brewery to be applied to new beverages. Proper evaluation of the results and consistent sampling enable the integration of data obtained with CDR BeerLab^® into process control and production decisions.

Among alternative beverages, the production of fermented or acidified drinks is probably the one most closely related to the brewery’s day-to-day operations.

In these processes, microorganisms capable of producing lactic acid during fermentation can be used. The rapid drop in pH alters the fermentation environment and can reduce or alter yeast metabolic activity; for this reason, pH must be interpreted in conjunction with cell viability, sugar consumption, and alcohol production. pH reflects changes in the fermentation environment, while lactic acid provides a direct indicator of acidification. The combined analysis of fermentable sugars and alcohol allows for the evaluation of substrate consumption and fermentation yield, respectively. Yeast viability helps estimate the metabolic state of the recovered cells, but the reported data must always be contextualized within the brewery’s control plan.

A possible monitoring plan could be organized as follows:

Sampling thresholds and time points must be defined by the brewery based on the recipe, the microorganism used, and the desired profile.

As highlighted in the BrauBeviale article, mashing can also be used to produce oat-based beverages. From a process standpoint, the brewery operates within a familiar context: grains, water, temperature, carbohydrate conversion, and filtration. However, this matrix has different characteristics compared to barley wort. Fiber, proteins, fats, and particles can make it more challenging to obtain a homogeneous and representative sample.

In general, matrices of this nature require monitoring of pH, starch, and sugars. Starch analysis can be performed using the CDR BeerLab^® in conjunction with the analysis of fermentable sugars, providing more detailed information than density alone. To correctly evaluate the results, it is important to establish consistent sampling procedures, verify the homogeneity of the sample, and consider the specific characteristics of the beverage. Starch determination can provide a useful indication of residual starch content and help compare the effects of different process conditions.

Another example of a beverage that can be produced using the brewery’s equipment is Boricha, an infusion made from roasted barley. The brewery’s technology can be used to maintain the grain at a high temperature, extract the soluble components, and subsequently complete the beverage’s formulation.

In this case, the familiarity stems primarily from the use of the equipment, while the final product may have an intense color, suspended solids, and a composition that depends on the temperature and extraction time. The parameters to be monitored depend on the formulation. pH and sugars can be useful for verifying the reproducibility of the extraction; alcohol becomes relevant when the product contains a fermented base or must comply with a specific limit. Again, the analytical data must be linked to the process stage and evaluated against internal benchmarks established through batch-to-batch comparisons.

Using the brewery’s facilities to develop alternative products opens up new possibilities, but requires an approach that integrates technology, raw materials, processes, expertise, and analytical control.

The brewery can apply some of the expertise it has gained in monitoring mashing, fermentation, acidification, and yeast management to these production processes. This transfer, however, cannot be automatic: when the product and the matrix change, sampling, measurement, and the interpretation of results may also change.

To move from experimentation to reproducible production, it is therefore necessary to define which transformations to observe, select the most relevant parameters, establish consistent sampling methods, and build internal benchmarks by comparing tests, recipes, and batches.

In this process, CDR BeerLab^® can support the monitoring of parameters such as pH, lactic acid, fermentable sugars, starch, alcohol, and yeast viability, providing useful data directly on the production floor.

Standardization thus arises from the integration of production experience, knowledge of the matrix, and analytical control, by applying established processes to different products and conditions.

When production extends to matrices other than brewing matrices, analytical control can be supplemented by other specialized systems from the CDR FOODLAB^® line. CDR KombuchaLab and CDR DrinkLab^® enable analysis of kombucha and other beverages, including soft drinks, kefir, fruit juices, and plant-based beverages, expanding monitoring capabilities based on product characteristics.