Author
 |
Jones, Berne |
|
Budde, Allen |
|
Submitted to: Barley Improvement Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/1999 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Beer is made by fermenting malted barley, and if the U.S. brewing industry is to remain competitive it must continually have access to new barleys that have outstanding malting quality. Seven public sector barley breeders are trying to develop these improved barleys but, to do this, they must know whether or not the individual barley lines that they develop possess outstanding malting quality. In my laboratory we prepare malts from samples the breeders send us and measure the quality of those malts. This paper describes how we prepare the malts, how we measure their malting quality and describes some of the quality tests that we used in the past and abandoned and others that we may use in the future. Because the needs of industry have changed recently, we have changed the way we make our malts. The barley samples are malted at warmer temperatures and for longer periods of time. Some tests that were previously quite important have been abandoned because we have developed tests that measure the same characteristics better and more quickly. Other tests that are not now used may become necessary in the future if we are to maintain the competitiveness of U.S. maltster who are trying to export malt. Still other methods may need to be changed so that the experimental quality testing results will be more relevant to the problems that brewers routinely run into. Research results document our ability to adjust to these trends and continually change our evaluation methods to serve the industry in the future. Technical Abstract: Each year, we malt and measure the malting quality of 4,500-5,000 barleys. The majority of these are barley breeder's early generation lines, but some have been developed by researchers who are conducting more basic studies. The barleys are subjected to five analysis and then malted, after which ten further analyses are carried out on the malts. On the basis of the analytical values that we measure, each barley is given an 'overall quality score' that reflects how well we feel it would perform for commercial brewing. Over the last few years, we have modified our malting procedures to produce more highly modified malts for analysis and have changed some of the malt parameters that we measure. We have stopped measuring 'fine-coarse differences' and have started measuring the malt beta-glucan levels and using this number to define the level of modification we have achieved. We have also stopped conducting brewing tests. We have modified our steeping process by raising the steep temperature by 1C and by adjusting the 'air rest' schedule. The germination schedule has been adjusted by lengthening the gemination step by a day, by raising the temperature by 1C and by shortening the time the sample is rotated. The initial kilning temperature was also raised by 10C. By making these changes we have strongly increased the level of modification of the malts and have moved from producing severely undermodified malts to making ones that are similar to their commercial counterparts. We may want to make further changes in our malting and analytical methods in the future, but our present methods are working very well. |