Malt

Malted barley

Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate by soaking in water[1] and are then quickly halted from germinating further by drying/heating with hot air.[2][3][4] Thus, malting is a combination of two processes: the sprouting process and the kiln-drying process. These latter terms are often preferred when referring to the field of brewing for batches of beer or other beverages as they provide more specific information.

The term "malt" refers to several products of the process:

Whisky or beer made from malted barley or rye can also be called malt, as in Alfred Edward Housman's aphorism "malt does more than Milton can, to justify God's ways to Man."

Homebrewing malt extracts: liquid in a can and spray dried.

Contents

Uses

Malt from an external supplier is delivered to a brewery

Malted grain is used to make malt beer, malt whisky, malted shakes, malt vinegar, confections such as Maltesers and Whoppers, and some baked goods, such as malt loaf. Malted barley is often a label-listed ingredient in blended flours typically used for yeast breads, and a form of it specially selected for higher protein is typically used in the manufacture of many common baked goods.[5] Malting grains develops the enzymes that are required to modify the grain's starches into sugars, including monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, etc.) and disaccharides (sucrose, etc.). It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms which can be utilized by yeast. Barley is the most commonly malted grain in part because of its high diastatic power or enzyme content. Also very important is the retention of the grain's husk even after threshing, unlike the bare seeds of threshed wheat or rye. This protects the growing acrospire (developing plant embryo) from damage during malting, which can easily lead to mold growth. It also allows the mash of converted grain to create a filter bed during lautering (see brewing). Other grains may be malted, especially wheat.

Maltings

A maltings, sometimes called malthouse, or malting floor, is a building that houses the process of converting barley into malt, for use in the brewing or distilling process.[6] This is done by kiln-drying the sprouted barley. This is usually done by spreading the sprouted barley on a perforated wooden floor. Smoke, coming from an oasting fireplace (via smoke channels) is then used to heat the wooden floor (and thus, the sprouted grain with it). The temperature thus employed is usually around 55 °C (131 °F). A typical floor maltings is a long, single-story building with a floor that slopes slightly from one end of the building to the other. Floor maltings began to be phased out in the 1940s in favor of 'pneumatic plants'. Here large industrial fans are used to blow air through the germinating grain beds and to pass hot air through the malt being kilned. Like floor maltings these pneumatic plants are batch processes but of considerably greater size, typically 100 tonne batches compared with 20 tonne batches for a floor maltings.

Malt categories

Malt is often divided into two categories by brewers: base malts and specialty malts. Base malts have enough diastatic power to convert their own starch and usually that of some amount of starch from unmalted grain, called adjuncts. Specialty malts have little diastatic power; they are used to provide flavor, color, or "body" (viscosity) to the finished beer. Caramel or crystal malts are specialty malts that have been subjected to heat treatment that converts their starches to sugars non-enzymatically. Within these categories are a variety of types distinguished largely by the kilning temperature (see mash ingredients). In addition, malts are distinguished by the two major species of barley used for malting, two-row and six-row.[7] A new encapsulating technology permits the production of malt granules. Malt granules are the dried liquid extract from malt using in the brewing or distilling process.[8]

Research

Scientists aim to discover what goes on inside barley grains as they become malted in order to help plant breeders produce better malting barley for food and beverage products. Agricultural Research Service scientists are interested in specialized enzymes called serine-class proteases [9] that convert carbohydrates into “simple sugars” during the sprouting process. [1] The enzyme also breaks down stored proteins into their amino acid derivatives. The balance of proteins and carbohydrates that are broken down by the enzyme affect the malt’s flavor.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "How to brew manually by John Palmer
  2. ↑ "Quality Factors for Malting, Brewing and other End-uses". Oregon State University. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/five/BarleyOverview.htm#BarleyMaltingQuality. Retrieved 2007-04-13. 
  3. ↑ What is malting?
  4. ↑ Kirk-Othmer Food and Feed Technology. New York: Wiley-Interscience. 2007. pp. 116-120. ISBN 0-470-17448-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=f--1V1ftgtsC&pg=PT116&lpg=PT116#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010 July 7. 
  5. ↑ Evers, A. D.; Kent, N. (1994). Technology of cereals: an introduction for students of food science and agriculture. New York: Pergamon Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-08-040834-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=wUwHtcqoP0YC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010 July 7. 
  6. ↑ How is Malt made? - The Maltsters Association of Great Britain
  7. ↑ Goldhammer, Ted (2008), The Brewer's Handbook, 2nd ed., Apex, ISBN 0-9675212-3-8, pp. 31 ff.
  8. ↑ "Patent EP1385931 Malt Granules". www.freepatentsonline.com. http://www.www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1385931.html. Retrieved 2009-05-25. 
  9. ↑ "Like Malt? You’ll Love This Malting Barley Research!". USDA Agricultural Research Service. February 2, 2010. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb10/malt0210.htm. 

Bibliography

External links