Presenter: Christian Mueller, Technische Universität Berlin,
Berlin, Germany
Coauthor: Frank-Jürgen Methner, Technische Universität
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Production of malt is a time and energy consuming process.
Time savings during malting, thus, are advantageous for
maltsters, but the resulting malt quality and homogeneity must
stay in the range of the brewer’s specifications. The literature
suggests relatively low temperatures should be used during
steeping and germination (13–17°C) to produce malts with a
high quality. In these investigations, constant steeping temperatures
between 15 and 35°C were used. Up to 25 and 30°C,
faster germination rates, higher germination energies, and
improved malt qualities, as well as increased malt homogeneities,
compared with a “normal” temperature of 15°C could be
achieved. Furthermore, trials with germination temperatures
between 16 and 28°C, whereby green malt samples were taken
at the third to six germination day, resulted in a faster attainment
of similar or better malt qualities up to 24°C depending
on barley variety. Time savings of about 1.5 processing days are
possible using high steeping and germination temperatures and
also are necessary to compensate for the extract losses due to
accelerated growth. The outcomes of this research could have
big benefits for future malting procedures and could change the
view of suggested low temperatures during malting, which may
not be completely relevant using modern barley varieties and
malting process parameters.
Christian Mueller apprenticed as a brewer from 1998, followed
by employment as a brewer and assistant in quality control at
the Tuborg/Carlsberg brewery, Mönchengladbach, Germany.
Afterward, he studied brewing technology at the Technische
Universität Berlin from 2002 to 2008, including student jobs
on several research projects. Since qualifying for his engineer
degree he has been working as a scientific assistant in the
Department of Brewing Science at TU Berlin.
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