MALT

1INTRODUCTION

Malt quality is of great consequence in beer production and thus has a substantial impact on the quality of the finished beer. Individual production steps, e.g. lautering, fermentation and filtration, as well as attributes central to the character of beer, e.g. flavor, color, foam and stability, are heavily influenced by malt quality. The malt utilized in beer production is mainly produced from malting barley; however, for some specialty beers, e.g. Southern German-style wheat beer, malt is also produced from wheat or even other cereals, e.g. rye or oats (cf. Cereals and Pseudocereals). Barley is a natural product, making it subject to regional and seasonal fluctuations. The task of compensating for this variation, at least to the extent physically possible, falls to the maltster whose vocation it is to make homogeneous malt of a consistent quality available to breweries. However, biological and economic constraints limit the degree to which quality can be rectified in the malthouse. Maintaining high standards of quality for German malting barley and, in turn, for the malt created from the barley for the purpose of brewing beer, is the responsibility of the entire production chain, from the farmer to the brewer. Advancements in barley breeding and cultivation have resulted in malting barley of an extremely high quality, particularly spring barley varieties. Specifications define the quality of malt required for effortless processing and thus have become the standards used by malt producers and other processing companies.

Through selection of the barley variety and the level of malt quality and hence the standard values and thresholds for the quantifiable attributes described in the malt analysis, a brewer ultimately determines the quality of the raw materials required for a particular beer style. When deciding which attributes should receive the highest priority, the accuracy of the analyses as well as how these various attributes interact with one another should be taken into account. Meticulous attention must be exercised in obtaining analysis results. The procedures for conducting the brewing analyses established throughout Europe have been published in collections of brewing analysis methods by theMitteleuropäische Brautechnische Analysenkommission (Central European B