How to Identify Good Quality Malts for Craft Brewing?

Craft beer is booming not just in China, but worldwide. Craft brewers are changing the beer landscape by offering an unprecedented diversity of beers. This diversity in beer flavors and colors would not be possible without good quality ingredients. There is however a large discrepancy between the characteristics of “good” quality malts in the eyes of a large commercial brewer who often uses adjuncts, or an all-malt beer craft brewer.

Differences

Historically the beer market in China has been dominated by adjunct lager styles, produced by a relative small number of mega-breweries. These types of beers are often consumed in high volume and at low costs. The malting industry responded to this trend of uniform mega-breweries by offering malt varieties with high diastic power and high FAN for brewing high adjunct beers (>50% corn or rice).

The current needs for the craft brewer are however very different. Nearly all craft brewers produce all-malt beer styles, they are in need of many different styles of malts to stay innovative and come up with new recipes all the time. Craft brewers do not focus by definition on high volume and low costs, but rather high quality and ultimate beer flavor. Due to higher original gravities and the fact that craft brewers brew all-malt beers, the quality of the malt is of more importance than ever before.

What does a brewer need?

• Malts are the source of fermentable sugars. The yeast ferments the sugars, creating alcohol and CO2. A good base malt should have a high extract value of 82% or higher.
• Malts are the source of enzymes that are critical to break down the starches. A craft brewer needs sufficient enzymatic power to convert the malts, while an adjunct brewer wants a much higher enzymatic power to also convert the rice, corn, or other adjuncts. Too much enzymatic power is a problem for all-malt brewers it can be difficult to control and have inconsistent outcomes, and influences the ‘maltyness’ of the beer negatively. 
• Malts provide Macro Nutrients and Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) necessary for fermentation. Adjunct brewers require relative high FAN malts compared to craft brewers, as excess in FAN can significantly reduce flavor stability, which is amplified in all-malt beer.
• Malts contribute to the right flavor profile of the beer, and the balance with the hops and yeast.
• Malts contribute to the color of the beer.

How to judge the quality?

Malt can be evaluated in different ways, and a well-respected malthouse should be able to inform about the origins and production of the malt. They should be able to provide you with a typical analysis of all their varieties, and a batch specific analysis of the specific batch that belongs to your current order. Of course, you can check your malts yourself by examining the color, smell, taste, and aroma. A good malt should be consistent in size and have large kernels. It should have a fresh malt smell, not stale or moldy. Breaking the malt kernel in half can show you the friability of the malt, although it’s always better to look at the lab results to get an accurate number.

Where does it come from?

The origin of the barley or malt can explain a lot about the malt characteristics. Beer trends on each continent have developed differently over the centuries. Large commercial breweries have dominated the beer industry and have set the standards for the malt production and thereby its characteristics. In North America, Australia, and Asia the industrial brewers have predominantly brewed high adjunct lagers, respectively with corn, sugar and rice. Enzymatic power and price therefore mostly drove their desired malt properties, to be able to convert the adjuncts and produce cheap beer in high volumes.

This in contrast to their European counterparts, who brew with 100% barley and no adjuncts. Their desired characteristics were driven by high extract level and optimal flavor profile. This difference in brewing history and a favorable climate has caused that most of the 2-row barley is grown in Europe, and most 6-row grows in Australia and North-America.

Another way to reduce costs for many Asian based large industrial brewers is to use feed-grade barley, instead of malting barley intended for brewing. More than 80% of the Australian barley exported is feed-grade.
Craft brewers as a group have preferred to use predominantly 2-row varieties of barley malt. This explains the success of the European malthouses in the American craft beer industry.

2-row versus 6-row

Two-row and six-row refers to the number of rows of developed kernels on a mature seed head. Both varieties have distinctive characteristics making them suitable for different purposes. Six-row is characterized to withstand harsher weather conditions, which is partly due to their higher protein content and thicker husk. The higher protein content gives six-row barley higher enzymatic power and FAN, which is preferred by producers of high adjunct lagers. The higher protein content and lower cost, also make 6-row preferred for feeding livestock.

Two-row barley is preferred by all-grain brewers due to its lower protein content, higher extract level, larger and more uniform size, thinner husk and better flavor profile. The lower protein content is linked to lower FAN levels and lower diastatic power. Excess FAN levels can significantly reduce the flavor stability, while high diastatic levels can be very difficult to control during the mash, converting too quickly or inconsistently, influencing the flavor and body of the beer.

In the United States today, some six-row barley is grown specifically for brewing purposes, whereas the six-row barley in the rest of the world remains mainly for feeding livestock. This is a problem specifically in China, where lots of feed-grade barley is malted and sold to breweries. 

As the craft beer industry is booming, demands in brewers malt are changing and two-row is becoming more popular again. Craft beer in percentage of total beer consumption might still be relatively small, yet the amounts of malts used per hector liter are a multiple of what the high adjunct brewers use. Most two-row barley is still grown in Europe, where the climate if preferential to two-row varieties, this also explains the success of the European malthouses during the American Craft Beer Revolution.

Important specs on the analysis

No two batches of barley are 100% the same. Variations in rainfall, soil nutrients and temperature during the growing season, all affect the crop from year to year, region to region and even from field to field. This impacts such values as kernel size, starch, protein, and moisture content. Goal of the maltster is to produce a consistent malt, so the brewer can produce a consistent beer. Good quality malt houses can give a constant quality year after year. These results can be found back in the malt analysis. Understanding this malt analysis is of key importance to comprehend the mashing capabilities of the brewery and your beers flavor profile, and it defines any adjustments that may be necessary in brewhouse procedures

Important specs to look at on the analysis

■Although the wort color (EBC) is not a quality measurement nor does it provide reliable information about the final beer color, it is always measured because it gives an indication of the malt type used. It is measured by comparing wort color to a colored disk.

■Friability is the measure of a malt's readiness to crumble when subjected to crushing. It is related to mealiness in purpose, and some maltsters use it as an alternative measure for mealiness. Any malt should be at least 80% friable; a percentage of above 85% is considered premium.

■Enzymatic Potential refers to the ability of enzymes in your malt to breakdown starches into sugars during mashing so that alcohol can be produced in fermentation. Different measurements can made to assess this potential, Alpha-amylase, Diastatic Power or Hartong45. A all-malt brewer is looking for sufficient enzymatic power, yet not too high.

■All breweries, small and large, are looking for malt with a high extract yield. Extract yield is a measure of the amount of sugar recovered from the malt after mashing. The extract value is based on a laboratory mash. Normal values for extract yields from congress mash are 80-82% for base malts. The higher the extract of dry weight, the better.

■S/T, Kolbach Index and FAN (free amino nitrogen) are different ways of looking at the percentage of proteins within the malt that are soluble. This percentage is important, as it indicates how well the yeast will be nourished during the first part of fermentation. Too few amino acids can lead to reduced alcohol production and higher final gravities, while too many or too high a percentage may lead to hazy beer (higher protein in wheat = cloudiness in wheat beers). For craftbrewers a total protein level between 9% to 10% is ideal. The S/T ratio should be between 35% and 45%.

■Grading by kernel size is one of the most important physical examinations and can be performed quickly and easily. The barley and malt is sorted by 2.8mm, 2.5mm and 2.2mm vibrating sieves. Everything above 2.5mm (sieve 1 + 2) is considered well filled malting barley. Everything in sieve 3 and below the last sieve is feed barley for cattle. A premium malting barley consists of at least 95% kernels larger than >2.5mm.