OnTap Magazine

Y our excitement is almost palpable. You have a beautiful, clean glass filled with delicious craft beer. In front of you is the brewer responsible for this creation. This proud brewer starts to explain the birth of their beer, beginning with the raw ingredients. The topic turns to malt – a core component in the production of beer. Then the brewer references barley and then, unless your ears deceive you, barley malt. What is the difference, you wonder? Are they all the same thing? And why does there seem to be so much jargon involved when it comes to beer? It all begins with barley. Barley is the name for the grain as it comes off the farm fields. It looks a bit like wheat in the way it appears on the field and the grains are similar in size. Barley is grown all over the world but in South Africa it is mostly grown in the Western Cape as well as under irrigation in the northern parts of the country. The barley grown here in South Africa is all destined for brewing and that which does not make the brewing grade might end up in your cereal, chocolate bars or mostly as a feed for animals. But before the brewer can use barley to make beer, it must undergo a process called malting. WHAT IS MALTING? Malting is a multi-day process that involves tricking the barley grain into germination, controlling the amount of germination and then halting germination by drying the grain. The malting process is very important for the brewing of beer, for it determines the amount of starch, and later sugar, that will be present in the brewing process – and sugar is of course essential for the production of alcohol. When germination is initiated, the barley naturally starts producing the enzymes that it uses to break down different components like protein and starch; components that would have been used for the plant’s own growth if the maltster hadn’t got involved. The maltster is not interested in plant growth but rather the preparation of the grain for its higher purpose of making beer. It is a very fine balance to allow the barley kernel to produce as many enzymes as possible but to also prevent as little as possible conversion of starch to sugar – something normally needed for its own growth. The art of malting is knowing the exact point when this happens and then initiating the drying process, effectively ending any further viable seed growth but thereby producing a grain for brewing beer. This stage is called kilning and it is a delicate and precise procedure. The maltster must kiln the barley in such a manner that the enzymes are preserved as much as possible. Once the grains are sufficiently dried, these enzymes basically go into “stasis” and can do no further work…until the brewer gets involved. This grain is now called barley malt. FROM FIELD TO GLASS The brewer buys this grain and after milling, combines it with hot water in a process called mashing. This reactivates the enzymes and they go on their mission to convert starch into sugar. Unfortunately the barley seed is not viable for growth anymore but nobody told that to the enzymes, which proceed to complete their original mission: to convert starch into shorter chain carbohydrates and simple sugars. The brewer’s art is to control this conversion process using time and carefully chosen temperature steps to produce just the right mix of fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. These create the alcohol and body in beer, although malt THE MANY SHADES OF MALT Once the freshly malted barley has been kilned, it is often roasted – a process that develops both colour and flavour. Malt can come in every shade, from the light beige of pale malts to the deep, deep brown of chocolate malts, which look a lot like mini coffee beans. When a brewer formulates a recipe he or she can choose just one malt or a combination of many. But even the darkest of beers – the likes of Guinness or Castle Milk Stout – begin with the palest of malts. There simply isn’t enough sugar left in the darker malts to later create alcohol, so the recipe will be mainly made up of lighter malts, with only about 10-15% of the grain bill comprising of darker malts. The preparation of the grain for its higher purpose of making beer offers much more to the finished product. It gives flavour and aroma, including notes of bread, biscuit, toffee and chocolate. Beer’s colour comes entirely from the malts used and even its frothy crown is largely thanks to the proteins found in malt. Barley is thus the grain direct from the fields; the raw agricultural product. Barley malt – also, just to confuse matters further, known as malted barley – is barley that has gone through the process of malting to prepare it for brewing purposes. Malt can refer to any grain that has gone through a process of malting – including sorghum, maize, rye and wheat. But by far the most commonly used grain in brewing is barley and so when you hear a brewer talking about malt, it is most likely they really mean barley malt. Your beer has thus gone through the art of malting and the art of brewing to become the masterpiece you now hold in your hand. It appears barley was made to be turned into beer – perhaps “divinely so”. Where else do you get this perfect mix of utility and process? Barley has great malting capabilities to produce a unique combination of yeast nutrients, flavours, colour and a natural enzyme package that can be utilised by the brewer to make beer in a extraction process almost 10 000 years old, but only well refined in the last few hundred years. ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2021 | 57