Barley and the Malting Process

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Barley and the Malting Process
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Overview

• The purpose of the malting process is to convert
  insoluble starch chains within grains into water
  soluble starches that can be used in the brewing
  process
• Barley malt is the most commonly used source of
  fermentable sugars in beer
• Other malted grains used in brewing include
  wheat, rye, oats and sorghum

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Overview (cont.)

• Adjuncts are defined as any unmalted source of
  fermentables in brewing
• Beer color is determined by the type of malts and
  adjuncts used in the brewing process

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Barley

• Two types of barley commonly used in brewing
• Two-row barley
• Six-row barley

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Barley (cont.)

• Two-row barley
• Bigger kernels
• Higher yield
• Lower nitrogen
• and protein content
• Lower husk content

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Barley (cont.)

• Six-row barley
• Smaller kernels
• Higher diastatic
• power (more enzymes)
• Higher husk content

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Barley (cont.)

• Key components of a barley kernel
• Husk
• Endosperm
• Germ
• Acrospire

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Producing Malt for Beer

• Definition Malting is the controlled
  germination (sprouting of roots) of cereal
  grains, followed by a termination of this natural
  process by the application of heat. This will
  convert the large, insoluble starch chains of the
  endosperm to water-soluble starches and activate
  both the proteolytic and diastatic enzymes
• The amount of enzymatic starch conversion
  potential that a malt has is referred to as its
  "diastatic power".

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Malting

• The process of malting is performed to
• Convert the large, insoluble starch chains of the
  endosperm to water soluble starches
• Activate both the proteolytic and diastatic
  enzymes that will reduce the proteins and
  starches into desirable components in the mash

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Malting (cont.)

• The process consists of
• Steeping barley in 50-65?F water for 2-3 days
• Allowing the barley to germinate at 50-70?F for
  6-10 days
• Gradually raising the temperature to 90?F and
  holding for 24 hours
• Gradually raising the temperature to 120?F and
  holding for 12 hours

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Producing Malt for Beer

• Modification
• Visual indicator the length of the acrospire
  (the plant shoot or germ) which grows underneath
  the husk.
• The length of the acrospire in a fully modified
  malt will typically be 100 of the seed length
  (ratio of 11)
• If germination continued, a plant would grow, and
  all of the starches would be used by the plant.
  Its desired to have a proper balance between
  resources converted by the acrospire and
  resources consumed by the acrospire and rootlets.
• Undermodified malts have more enzymes and
  starches available, but also more proteins
  (mashing issues)
• Fully modified malts will have less enzymes and
  starches, and proteins are degraded.

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Producing Malt for Beer

• Drying, Kilning, and Roasting Process
• At the end of germination, the malt is gradually
  raised in temperature to 90 F, and held there
  for 24 hours to permit enzyme action
• Then gradually raised to 120 F and held at this
  temperature for 12 hours to dry the malt, as it
  is essential that the malt be bone-dry before
  being heated to kilning temperatures to prevent
  the destruction of the enzymes (unless desired).
• The grain is then kilned to caramelize some of
  the sugars (eg crystal malt) or blacken it (eg a
  black patent malt).
• They are then cooled to below 100 F.
• The grain is then tumbled to knock the beginnings
  of roots off.
• Malts should be allowed to rest for a month or so
  before being mashed.

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Color

• Beer color is determined by the types of malts
  and adjuncts used
• Two scales are used
• Lovibond Scale (L)
• still associated with malt color (0-600, light to
  dark)
• USA Standard Reference Method (SRM)
• Europe European Brewing Convention (EBC)
• Both scales go from low to high, with low
  referring to lighter colors

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Recipe Formulation
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Dave Millers Homebrewing Guide

• Basic Parameters for a Recipe
• Gravity- reflects total amount of grain
• Bitterness reflects the hopping rate
• Color reflects the amount and type of specialty
  grains

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Gravity

• Gravity is affected by three factors
• The amount of grain (malt and adjuncts)
• The types of grains used
• Efficiency of the process
• The first two factors are strait forward and can
  be accounted for mathematically
• Efficiency is a highly variable and has to be
  determined by experience.

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Extract figures attainable from HB equipment

• Barley Flakes 30
• Black Malt 24
• Cane Sugar 45
• Cara Pils 30
• Corn or Rice 40
• Corn Sugar 40
• Crystal malts 24
• Honey 35
• DME 45

• LME 36
• Mild Ale Malt 33
• Munich 33
• Pale Malt 35
• Roasted Barley 24
• Six-Row 33
• Two- Row 35
• Vienna 30
• Wheat Malt 38

See Chart from BeerSmith for better numbers
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Example Kolsch

• 2-row malt 6
• Vienna Malt 8oz
• Caramel 10 malt 8oz

• 6 x 34210
• .5 x 32 16
• .5 x 24 12
• Total 238/5 47.5

i.e. OG of 1.047-.048 for a five gallon batch
Does not factor in Efficiency 47.5 x .75
35.62 So at 75 efficiency, you should expect OG
of 1.035-1.036
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Bitterness

• Much more difficult to measure than gravity
• Requires a laboratory
• Beyond the scope of most homebrewers
• A number of formulas have been published to
  predict the bitterness in beer
• Simplest formula for attempting to predict IBU is
  use a sliding scale
• IBU AAU x 74.4 / wort volume (gals) x U
  (utilization )

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Example

• If we use 5 AAU of hops in 5 gallons of wort and
  we assume 25 utilization
• IBU 5 x 74.4 / 5 x 0.25 18.6 IBU
• Note 50-50 of getting an accurate estimate with
  in 1 IBU with this formula

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Hops

• The factors that determine how much of bitterness
  get into the beer can be taking into account in
  your calculations
• Boil Time longer better utilization
• Wort gravity above .030 lower utilization
• Quantity More is more up to 100 IBU
• Pellets vs. Whole pellets will yield about 25
  more IBUs than whole.

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Hops

• Other factors can affect
• Ph levels
• Boil Vigor
• Wort Protein
• Cold Break
• Yeast type
• If you use a hop bag up your quantity by 25

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Hops

• Flavor/Aroma
• Low alpha acid content
• Low cohumulone AA content
• Low mycerne oil content
• Brewers have three options in adding aroma/flavor
  hops
• Boiling generally for a short period of time 30
  minutes or less
• Steeping, kettle additions or through a hop back
• Dry hopping

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Color

• In some ways even harder to deal with than
  bitterness
• The color of malt is measured by making a
  standard mash
• Color Unit (CU)
• 1 CU 1 lb of malt with color rating of 1 degree
  Lovibond

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Calculate color

• To calculate color
• Multiply the weight in lbs of each malt in your
  recipe by the malts color rating
• Add up the figures and divide by number of
  gallons

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Example Pale Ale

• 6 lbs pale Malt (3L) 18CU
  (6x3)
• 0.5 lbs British Crystal (55L) 27.5CU
  (.5X55)
• Total
  47.5CU
• CU/Gal
  9.1 (45.5/5)

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Color

• Other factors that affect color
• Mash efficiency
• Batch-to-batch variation of malt
• Kettle carmelization
• Aging of extract
• Finings and filtration