Microfluidic evaluation of hop oil emulsion stabilization

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Phillips Brewing and Malting Co. (PBMC) is a craft brewery and barley malting company in Victoria, British Columbia. They are renowned for their innovation and creativity, and their operations have benefited from both their in-house research and from collaborations with local researchers. Research is an important part of PBMC's commercial strategy, with the aim of producing unique flavours that have improved shelf-stability, a key parameter that enables wider distribution of products. The aim of this project is to understand how to make more stable emulsions of hop oils, which are the molecules that give beers such as India Pale Ales (IPA) their distinctive flavour. Dr Elvira's research team develops lab-on-a-chip technologies for applications ranging from healthcare and food science, to the building of 'organ-on-a-chip' platforms. Emulsions can be created on lab-on-a-chip devices at rates of thousands of droplets per second, with a volume variation of around 2%. Therefore they are a key new technology for studying food emulsions such as IPA hop oils. Our goal with this partnership is to push the boundaries of hop flavour and gain selective control over the hop essential oils that are integrated into the complex flavour matrix of IPA. This will enable Phillips Brewing and Malting Co. to more accurately design the flavour profiles of their range of IPAs and to predict flavour degradation under different temperature conditions during storage and distribution.