Malting

• Approximately 96% of the malt produced in the world is

used as the main raw material, along with water, to make
beer.
• Likewise, malt is extremely important in Scotland for
whisky production, but this only represents approximately
3% of the world’s malt use. The rest is used as a very
important ingredient in the food industry as natural
flavouring, breakfast cereals, malted milk drinks, or malt
vinegar.
• Although barley, wheat, and sorghum can be malted,
barley malt is preferred for brewing.
Steps in malting:
1. Precleaning, Cleaning, grading and storage:
• After harvesting, barley must be prepared for storage during its
period of dormancy, before conversion to malt, under conditions
minimizing the risk of infestation from insects, fungal attack, etc.
• To achieve this, it is necessary to dry the wet or green grain from
the fields for long-term storage, down to a moisture content of
12%. Grain with moisture levels between 10% and 12% can be
stored for long periods, although initial drying down to 15% to
16% could be acceptable, providing that the grain is stored for
short periods, and preferably cooled.
• When barley arrives at a malting plant, it is rapidly precleaned to
remove gross impurities before it is passed to the drier or to
storage silos.
• Precleaning consists of a rough sieving process combined with,
or followed by, aspiration of the grain stream with a flow of air.
In this stage, items such as leaves, straw, stones, clods of earth,
snail shells, barley awns, and other light material are removed.
• Cleaning has to remove impurities of about the same size as
barley, such as weed seeds of grains of other cereals, as well as
broken grains, or undersized grains. The light material is
removed with the help of cleaners and separators, whose sieves
have a greater efficiency than those installed in the precleaning
stage. Destoners, which separate the stones from the grain using
their density difference, can be optionally installed.
• Finally, in the sieving equipment, barley for malting is graded by kernel
size (width) into different categories, for example, grain sizes of more than
2.5 mm, 2.2 to 2.5 mm, and less than 2.2 mm. Broken kernels and grain of
less than 2.2 mm width, removed as screenings, may be collected in a silo
for eventual use as animal feed. It is important that all these technologies
are fitted with a dust extraction system to minimize the risk of dust
explosions.
• Barley that has been processed ready for malting is stored in large-
capacity circular steel bins, giving maximum versatility in the separation of
varieties. An automatic weighing machine in this section controls the
quantity of barley and assists with the stock records. If storing for longer
periods, silos as large as 4000 m³ may be used.
2. Steeping:
• Steeping initiates malting and is a crucial step in producing
quality malt. During steeping, barley takes up water and
swells by one third.
• Respiration increases slowly at first and then more rapidly,
causing the grain in steep to accumulate CO2 and heat up;
this is aggravated by the action of microorganisms associated
with the barley.
• The steeping stage consists of alternating periods when the
grain is immersed in water, referred to as the “under water
periods,” and periods with the water drained from the grain,
referred to as the “air rest periods.” This combination is
required to promote and maintain the efficiency of the
germination .
• To achieve satisfactory results during the subsequent malting, it is
necessary to increase the water content of barley to approximately
42% to 46% during the steeping process, in a typical temperature range
from 15°C to 20°C.
• When barley absorbs water, the embryo becomes active and uses the
oxygen dissolved in the steeping water for respiratory purposes. During
the first period under water, the dissolved oxygen in the water is
rapidly adsorbed by the organic material and microflora in the grain. In
case of prolonged failure of the oxygen supply, respiration with the
release of CO2 may induce fermentation with the production of
ethanol.
• A lack of oxygen at any stage will stop the growth and enzyme
production. Prolonged anaerobic conditions is progressively damaging
and finally lethal to the grain.
• Barley is steeped for 3 days with 44% increase in water content
without any growth seen in embryo.
• In addition to supplying water and oxygen to the barley,
steeping is of considerable value in removing dirt from the
grain. The film of dust and many of the microorganisms
adhering to the grain are washed away by the steep water, and
this cleaning action can be increased if special equipment is
used to agitate the barley during steeping. Steep water leaches
husk components that may impede germination and any musty
smell that may be associated with the barley, and possibly
some that prevent proper flocculation of yeast.
 3. Germination:
• The germination process is characterized by the growth of the embryo of
the grain, manifested by the rootlets growth and increase in length of the
shoot (acrospire), with the concomitant modification of the contents of
the endosperm.
• To a certain extent, the germination and steeping steps overlap because
many maltsters prefer the barley to be “chitted,” that is to have the tip of
the rootlet breaking through the husk, at the end of steeping.
• It is the objective of the maltster to obtain the necessary modification for
a particular type of malt while reducing to a minimum the loss in weight
consequent on the activity of the embryo.
• Germination rate and modification intensity are controlled by
regulating the moisture content and temperature of the grain.
Traditionally, the steeped grain spends between 4 and 6 days in
humid and ventilated conditions.
• The temperature of germinating grain is controlled to between
14°C and 20°C by a flow of air through the bed; the germinating
grain is humidified by atomizing water jets, which may be
cooled by refrigeration. Also relevant, to ensure grain bed
homogeneity throughout kernel germination, is a gentle
revolving of barley along the germination period.
• The hydrolytic enzymes that catalyze modification are derived
mainly from the scutellum and aleurone layer. In the initial
stages of germination, the scutellum releases many hydrolytic
enzymes that begin to degrade the cell walls of the crushed cell
layer, and the walls, protein, and starch granules of the
endosperm.
• In addition to enzymes, the scutellum releases gibberellins,
which stimulate the production and release of numerous
hydrolytic enzymes by the aleurone layer. α-Amylase is absent
from the hydrated aleurone, and its de novo synthesis and
release are independently triggered by the arrival of the
hormone.
• It is estimated that in malt, approximately 85% of this enzyme
originates from the aleurone layer and 15% from the scutellum
layer.
• β-Amylase, which exists in the original barley in an inactive form
in the starchy endosperm, is liberated and the degradation of the
components proceeds.
• Proteases and carboxypeptidases accumulate in the starchy
endosperm during germination.
• β-Glucan solubilase is a carboxypeptidase that converts the
insoluble cell wall protein matrix to high molecular weight
soluble but viscous β-glucans, which can create problems during
wort separation and beer filtration.
• Those are broken down further to low molecular weight glucans
and glucose by the endo-β-glucanases and β-glucosidases. These
enzymes develop slowly in the malting process and are slightly
sensitive to gibberellic acid. Gibberellic acid is an example of
germination regulator which, like potassium bromate, can be
added to the grain, to greatly accelerating the modification rate
(Briggs et al. 1981). At this stage, the material is called green
malt.
• The metabolism of the growing grain is an exothermic process.
Typically from 1 tonne of barley, 40 kg of starch will be converted
to carbon dioxide and water with an associated energy
production of 850 MJ of heat. This heat, which must be
dissipated, may cause an increase in temperature of the air, and a
temperature increase across the malt bed of 2°C is acceptable.
4. Kilning:
• Kilning has the characteristics of a typical industrial
drying process occurring in two distinct stages. First,
moisture is removed from the green malt, reducing it
from approximately 44% to 12%. With an upward air
flow, this process takes about 12 h to pass through the
bed for a single-deck kiln and 24 h for a double-deck
kiln This phase of drying is rapid and is referred to as
the “free-drying” or “withering” phase.
• The second phase of drying, in which the malt is dried from 12%
to 4%, occurs in a much slower process, which is commonly
referred to as the “falling rate” phase. At the end of the drying
process, the kiln temperatures may be raised for 1 or 2 h in the
“curing” stage, followed by a cooling period to achieve a
temperature suitable for discharge and storage.
• Kilning not only dries the malt, preventing further growth and
modification, but also removes undesirable flavors, partially or
wholly destroys some hydrolytic and other enzymes, and develops
flavor and color in the final product. Moreover, malt is kilned to
produce a friable, readily milled stable product that may be stored
for long periods, and from which roots may easily be removed.
• In double-deck kilns, the process is halted at the break point
(when the air-off temperature closely approaches the air-on
temperature) to permit discharge of finished malt from the
lower bed and transfer of malt from the upper to the lower
bed.
• Owing to longer exposure of the green malt to warm and
moist conditions, there is more risk of microbiological problems
in double-deck kilns.
• Significant differences can be observed between the lower and
upper malt bed in such kiln due to the moisture and
temperature gradient, emphasizing the necessity to draw
attention toward the heterogeneity of commercial malts.
• The composition of malt changes during kilning, so that
normally, the enzyme activity declines whereas its color, aroma,
flavor, and extractable polyphenol content increases.
• Some enzymes, for example, α-glucosidase, are appreciably
inactivated even at 45°C, which is well below kilning
temperatures. At 80°C, the activities of enzymes, such as β-
glucanase and β-amylase, are significantly reduced.
• α-Amylase is the most stable enzyme and its activity may even
increase during kilning. The degree of enzyme destruction at any
temperature is greater when the malt is wet.
• Highly enzymatic malts are kilned at lower temperatures and in
a rapid air flow to ensure that the grain is cooled by evaporation.
• Thermal efficiency is important in kilning because this
process consumes 85% to 90% of the energy used in a
malting plant. Generally, it is economical to install
heat recovery equipment to recover part of the heat
being rejected by the kiln for preheating the incoming
air. Therefore, it is currently best practice to install
cogeneration plants together with malting plants.
Separation of culms:
• When kilning is complete, the heat is switched off and the grain is
allowed to cool before it is stripped from the kiln in a stream of air at
ambient temperatures. On its way to steel or concrete hopper-bottomed
storage silos, the malt is “dressed” to remove dried rootlets, or culms,
which are extremely hygroscopic, and must be stored out of contact with
the air. They have a much lower economic value than the malt and are
used for feeding cattle.
• Approximately 3% to 5% of the original barley is recovered as culms in
the traditional malting processes. To break and remove rootlets, the
cooled malt is agitated with beaters and screened by passing through a
revolving perforated drum that retains the kernels and allows the culms
to pass out through the perforations. The malt is, at the same time,
aspirated with dry air to cool it and to remove the dust.
 Functional properties of malted barley:
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA 2006) confirmed the qualified
health claim linking barley to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases
(as a result of high content of food fibre).
• Barley is an excellent source of soluble and insoluble dietary fiber and
other bioactive constituents, such as vitamin E (including tocotrienols), B
complex vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds. Moreover,
research on grain nutritious composition and clinical studies have
demonstrated that consumption of barley grain is an effective tool for
the control of type II diabetes, the digestive system diseases, disrupted
immunity of the organism, and other civilization diseases.
• Therefore, it is predicted that the health benefits of barley will stimulate
interest among food producers and consumers in using barley for food
purposes.