Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Brewers’ Spent Grain Proteins and Technofunctional Properties of the Resulting Hydrolysates

Brewers' spent grain (BSG) is the insoluble residue of barley malt resulting from the manufacture of wort. Although it is the main byproduct of the brewing industry, it has received little attention as a marketable commodity and is mainly used as animal feed. Our work focuses on one of the main constituents of BSG, i.e., the proteins. The lack of solubility of BSG proteins is one of the limitations for their more extensive use in food processing. We therefore aimed to generate BSG protein hydrolysates with improved technofunctional properties. BSG protein concentrate (BPC) was prepared by alkaline extraction of BSG and subsequent acid precipitation. BPC was enzymatically hydrolyzed in a pH-stat setup by several commercially available proteases (Alcalase, Flavourzyme, and Pepsin) for different times and/or with different enzyme concentrations in order to obtain hydrolysates with different degrees of hydrolysis (DH). Physicochemical properties, such as molecular weight (MW) distribution and hydrophobicity, as well as technofunctional properties, such as solubility, color, and emulsifying and foaming properties, were determined. Enzymatic hydrolysis of BPC improved emulsion and/or foam-forming properties. However, for the hydrolysates prepared with Alcalase and Pepsin, an increasing DH generally decreased emulsifying and foam-forming capacities. Moreover, the type of enzyme impacted the resulting technofunctional properties. Hydrolysates prepared with Flavourzyme showed good technofunctional properties, independent of the DH. Physicochemical characterization of the hydrolysates indicated the importance of protein fragments with relatively high MW (exceeding 14.5 k) and high surface hydrophobicity for favorable technofunctional properties.