Posted by When cyclodextrin meets brewer’s yeast
Non-alcoholic beer sales keep growing, but one complaint remains: the foam collapses too fast. Without a full fermentation, the drink lacks many of the foam-positive compounds of regular beer, and its head is often made with injected CO₂. A Korean patent application from HiteJinro, the country’s largest brewer and soju maker, proposes a fix in which cyclodextrin plays a small but decisive part.
The application, Beverage additive for improving foam retention (KR 10-2025-0175061 A, filed 7 June 2024, published 16 December 2025), describes a spray-dried powder made from two ingredients: the supernatant of recovered brewer’s yeast and cyclodextrin.
A waste stream with a foam bonus
After fermentation, yeast is collected from the bottom of the tank. Part of it is reused, the rest is discarded. HiteJinro centrifuged and filtered this recovered yeast and tested the clear supernatant as a foam booster. Added at 1.5% v/v, it raised the foam stability of a non-alcoholic beer from 104 s to 132 s, outperforming wort, lager and a yeast culture broth. The authors link the effect to its high polyphenol content (246 ppm). In regular 4.6% beer, which already contains enough foam-positive compounds, the gain was negligible (183 s vs. 186 s).
The supernatant, however, contains ethanol, which cannot go into a non-alcoholic product. Spray drying removed the alcohol completely and kept 94% of the polyphenols. But the powder came with a price: at 0.15% w/v, turbidity more than doubled (1.42 → 3.01 EBC) and pH rose from 3.51 to 3.75. That is where cyclodextrin enters the story.
The role of cyclodextrin: a clear head, not a cloudy glass
Cyclodextrin is not the foaming agent here. Its job is to keep the yeast-derived booster from spoiling the look and acidity of the beer. The team dissolved 10% w/v cyclodextrin in the yeast supernatant at 50 °C, stirred until homogeneous, and spray-dried the mixture. Polyphenol recovery stayed at a good 88%. The claims cover a cyclodextrin ratio of 5–15% w/v; above that range, the patent notes, the cyclodextrin no longer dissolves and precipitates.
| Additive at 0.15% w/v | Foam stability (s) | Turbidity (EBC) | pH |
|---|---|---|---|
| None (control) | 104 | 1.42 | 3.51 |
| Yeast supernatant powder | 159 | 3.01 | 3.75 |
| Yeast supernatant + cyclodextrin powder | 137 | 1.82 | 3.61 |
The trade-off is clear. Cyclodextrin cuts the turbidity increase by about 75% and halves the pH shift, while giving up some of the foam gain, simply because each gram of powder carries less yeast solids. The application does not explain the mechanism. A plausible reading for our readers: cyclodextrins are known to form inclusion complexes with polyphenols and other hydrophobic compounds, which could limit the polyphenol–protein interactions that cause haze in beer. Cyclodextrins are also reported to stabilize foams in their own right, an effect we recently covered in oat milk.
Better body, and a few open questions
A 10-member sensory panel found no off-flavours with either powder. The cyclodextrin version scored higher on body (3.8 vs. 3.0 on a 5-point scale) and overall preference (5.8 vs. 5.0 on a 9-point scale) at the best dose of 0.06% w/v. Some panellists noted a more beer-like bitterness that masked the typical off-notes of non-alcoholic beer.
The road to a granted patent is not smooth. According to Chosun Biz, the IP office has twice raised objections: first for lack of inventive step, citing prior art on yeast-based and cyclodextrin-based foaming, then for claims broader than the tested conditions. HiteJinro has until 18 January 2027 to respond.
One detail cyclodextrin specialists will miss: the application never says which cyclodextrin was used. α, β or γ, native or derivatized? Given the very different solubilities and cavity sizes, the answer matters, and narrowing the claims to a specific type may well be part of the way forward.
Sources
- HiteJinro Co., Ltd.: Beverage additive for improving foam retention, beverage comprising the same and method for producing a beverage using the additive. KR 10-2025-0175061 A (application no. 10-2024-0074208), published 16 December 2025.
- Chosun Biz, 1 October 2026