Brewing malt

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Barley malt in production

Brewing malt is malt that is specially tailored to the requirements of beer production .

For brewery purposes, barley is predominantly malted in Germany today . There are several reasons for this, some of them historical:

  • Barley also grows on poor soils, which are unsuitable for wheat, and it is hardly suitable for baking, so it can be brewed without hesitation even when there is a shortage of baking grain. That is why there have often been attempts in history to ban beer made from other grains.
  • Barley has a stable grain shell ( husk ) that serves as a natural filter bed during lautering (separation of the wort from the solid components after mashing ).
  • Barley has a distinct, pithy taste of its own, which gives the beer a "body".

The brewers almost exclusively use two- row summer barley , currently only one type of winter barley is recommended for use.

Of course, in principle any type of grain can be malted for brewing. In addition to barley, wheat is used particularly often , rye and spelled more rarely . Rather unusual in Germany, if not without its appeal, is the use of malt made from emmer , einkorn , millet , and other types of grain, whose rather unfavorable brewing properties lead to significantly more processing effort. In South America and Mexico, on the other hand, maize is mostly processed into brewing malt.

Manufacturing

Simple infographic on brewing malt production.png

First, the grains are cleaned and sorted by machine. The grain then swells in the water for 1–2 days and begins to germinate. On the one hand, the swelling hydrates the insoluble starch contained in the endosperm of the cereal grain. On the other hand, the enzymes contained in the outer layer of the grain are activated, which later - during the production of the wort - should gradually break down the starch into malt sugar ( maltose ). Before the latter happens, however, the germination of the green malt is stopped by kilning. During kilning , the malt is dried by hot air, after which the germs are removed. The finished brewing malt contains, in addition to starch that is not or only partially (e.g. with caramel malts), mainly: activated, starch-breaking enzymes which, however, temporarily do not work due to the drying process.

Depending on the manufacturing process, different malts produce different color strengths in the finished beer. The coloring power of malts is given in the unit EBC . The kiln has an impact on the color and taste of the beer.

Light malt is kilned at around 80 ° C, dark malt at around 100 ° C, and colored malt at around 220 ° C.

After kilning, the malt is freed of root germs, dedusted, polished and stored in silos.

The degree of protein dissolution is determined with the Kolbach number .

Distinctions of the malts

Brewing malt mixture in the bulk of the grist mill of a brewery

Malts are also divided according to the possible percentage of the so-called bulk , i.e. H. the malt mixture of the beer, in

  • Base malts and
  • Special malts (see below).

Within these groups one can differentiate between the malts depending on the grain used

Depending on the type of cultivation of the grain, a distinction can be made:

Base malts

Base malts are all malts that make up a large proportion of the amount of malt (bulk) in a beer and whose properties allow them to be used in large quantities.

Pilsner malt

The world's most widely used base malt made exclusively from barley. In other countries it is also often referred to as lager malt ( for brewing lager beers ) or as light malt (pale malt). It is particularly light and can be used as a basis for all types of beer (dark beers are sometimes only colored by colored malt ). It is kilned at around 80 ° C and has a color strength of 2–3 EBC. It is indispensable for the production of Pilsner , Hellem and other light beers.

Pale ale malt

Barley malt, which is between Pilsner and Viennese malt in color. It is more common in the Anglo-Saxon region, where the popular pale ale in its numerous variants is brewed using special mashing processes (to which this malt is tailored, or vice versa) .

Viennese malt

Barley malt, which differs from the Pilsner malt in that it has a slightly stronger color (approx. 10 EBC) and is kilned at around 90 ° C. It is used for festival beers and Märzen beer .

Munich malt

Barley malt, which has an even deeper color depth than Pilsener and Viennese malt and is kilned at around 100 ° C. It is the main ingredient for malty, darker beers and comes in different color strengths (between 15 and 70 EBC). In addition to the darker color, this malt usually also has a pronounced malty aroma, which is why it is not only used for coloring, but also to intensify the taste.

Wheat malt

In contrast to the aforementioned malts, it is made from wheat instead of brewing barley . When brewing wheat normal wheat is low in protein , good order and germination used. Since wheat no husk has and therefore no appreciable in Lautertun the brewery spent grain layer forms, is for wheat beer usually only a fraction used up to 60 percent wheat malt. Wheat malt can be produced as dark wheat malt in addition to the usual light wheat malt.

Specialty malts

Special malts are only ever used in a small percentage of the pouring of a beer and only ever in connection with base malts. They serve to refine or differentiate beers and types of beer or to compensate for undesirable properties of the base malts or the brewing water.

Caramel malts

While basic malts provide the starch and enzymes that are necessary to produce fermentable sugars, these malts already contain caramelised and no longer fermentable sugars using special processes. They serve to increase the full-bodiedness and provide a certain sweetness, which is particularly desirable with festive beers. They are available in all imaginable color levels between color units of approx. Five EBC and 1300 EBC. They can also be used to control the degree of fermentation and thus the formation of alcohol, which is of interest, for example, in the production of light beers .

Melanoidin malt

Thanks to a special drying process, it contains a particularly large amount of dextrins, which give the beer a more robust taste. For example, you can still add the typical aromas to a beer in which no decoction process (in which part of the mash is vigorously boiled) was used. Has a distinctly reddish color effect and is usually around 50–80 EBC.

Sour malt

Was subjected to natural acidification with lactobacilli before kilning . By shifting the pH value of the mash, unfavorable properties of the brewing water (such as an unfavorable carbonate hardness ratio) can be partially absorbed without the water having to be treated in a complex manner.

Roasted malt (colored malt)

This is malt that is kilned for a particularly long time and hot, so that it turns deep brown to black through and through. It is mainly used to enhance the color of the beer, but it is also often used because of its intense roasted aroma, which is reminiscent of tart chocolate or coffee (see malt coffee ). Since the husks (husks) of the grain can quickly char when roasting barley and thus lead to an unpleasant burnt taste, roasted malt is usually made from de-husked barley. A typical specialty with roasted malt is black beer . Roasted wheat malt is also occasionally used, for example in some dark wheat beers .

Smoked malt

Smoked malt is kilned in the smoke to make smoked beer from it .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian State Office for Agriculture: Factorial variety tests and technical production tests - BARLEY - brewing quality and grain physical examinations
  2. ^ Hans-Dieter Belitz, Werner Grosch, Peter Schieberle: Textbook of food chemistry. ISBN 978-3-86022-234-8 , pages 884-885.