Physicochemical characterization of barley malt available for craft brewers

Abstract

According to field evaluations, the consumption of craft beer in Argentina has dramatically increased in recent years. However, there is no complete characterization of the malts, even though it is one of the fundamental raw materials in the brewing process. As an objective of this work, it was proposed to provide the manufacturer of craft beer with the characterization of base malts that will be used in the process, since their physicochemical properties are a fundamental parameter to address the final product. Moisture, ash, protein, lipid and carbohydrate determinations were made, according to the EBC and AOAC methods, obtaining the following results respectively: 5.15 g / 100 g ± 0.85; 1.91 g / 100 g ± 0.12; 10.44 g / 100 g ± 0.21; 1.76 g / 100 g ± 0.17; 81.22 g / 100 g ± 1.59. The obtained values are in accordance with those informed by other authors related to other malt varieties and geographical origin.