An electronic tongue can distinguish between different types of beer.

The device is accurate about 82 percent of the time, a FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology news release reported.

"The concept of the electronic tongue consists in using a generic array of sensors, in other words with generic response to the various chemical compounds involved, which generate a varied spectrum of information with advanced tools for processing, pattern recognition and even artificial neural networks," lead author Manel del Valle said in the news release.

The device employs f 21 ion-selective electrodes that respond to cations such as sodium while others respond to anions like nitrate; other sensors responded to unspecified varieties.

The researchers analyzed how the sensors responded to different types of beer.

"Using more powerful tools - supervised learning - and linear discriminant analysis did enable us to distinguish between the main categories of beer we studied: Schwarzbier, lager, double malt, Pilsen, Alsatian and low-alcohol," Del Valle said. "And with a success rate of 81.9 percent."

The experiment showed what varieties of beer the tongue is programed to recognize and which ones it is not.

They found it does not recognize brands that it was not trained to. "In view of the ordering of the varieties, which followed their declared alcohol content, the scientists estimated this content with a numerical model developed with an artificial neural network," the news release reported.

"This application could be considered a sensor by software, as the ethanol present does not respond directly to the sensors used, which only respond to the ions present in the solution," the researchers reported.

The team believes the technology could be used to give robots a sense of taste which could work to improve the quality and consistency of the food industry.

The study was published in the journal Food Chemistry.