Getting to know your ingredients - Malt

Many brewers and beer lovers have a romantic notion that one the world’s first consumer protection legislations was safeguarding the purity of beer. Whilst this may be the case, it was far from a straightforward act to make sure customers got their monies worth.

The Reinheitsgebot was instituted across Bavaria on 23^rd April 1516, after obtaining the backing of the relevant Dukes. The law permitted the use of only malted barley, water and hops in their beer; this was before yeast was discovered. Although this ensured there was nothing inappropriate used in brewing, it also excluded some common ingredients of the time – mainly other types of malt and gruit (a mixture of herbs often used in place of hops). Any beer found not conforming would be destroyed, and the owner fined. This meant that most beers made elsewhere in Europe could not be consumed in Bavaria, monopolising the drinking market for local produce. The authorities also placed caps on the amount that could be charged, so it was affordable and the brewers could not take advantage of their new found exclusivity, perhaps also reducing the likelihood of an untaxable black market.

Another main reason for the creation of the Reinheitsgebot was that it increased the availability of wheat and rye malt for use in bread making. This brings me nicely on to the topic I wanted to cover in this blog; Malt.

Malt, more often than not in brewing refers to Malted Barley. This cereal grain is the base for most beers and much goes into its production. The most appropriate barley grains are selected from the harvest and treated in a way that makes it possible to extract the natural starches in order to convert them into sugars. This process is called Malting.

Once the grain has been selected, it is dried and stored for several weeks which improves the viability of the grain and allows them to sprout uniformly. It is then steeped in water (germination), shoots and air dried. This ‘green malt’ is then kiln dried at various temperatures depending what sort of malt is being produced - dark malts being kilned at higher temperatures than pale; and then we have malt ready for brewing, after being crushed of course.

There are many types of grain, each contributing a different characteristic to our beer. You would most often have one or two base malts, complimented by some speciality malts. For example, a simple grain bill for a golden coloured ‘Pale Ale’ might look something like this;

Pale Malt	89%
Torrified Wheat	3%
Crystal malt	8%

The base malt here is Pale malt. This contributes most of the sugars which will be turned into alcohol later in the process and provides the malty backbone of the beer. The torrified wheat is added to give enhanced head retention and a fuller body. The crystal malt is darker and provides a little sweetness and toffee/caramel flavours.

You can find a comprehensive list of malts and other mash ingredients here.

This is the first in a series of blogs about beer and brewing. This part is all about getting to know your ingredients. In a later blog about Mashing, I will examine what we do with the malt in order to make wort.

Thank you for reading, please stay tuned!