β-Glucanase Addition in Brewing Malt Produced by Reduced Time of Germination

Abstract The β-Glucans content has straight influence on the quality of malt and beer, mainly during the filtration step. Barley presenting high β-Glucan content demands longer germination time at malting. The application of commercial β-Glucanase is an alternative to accelerate the process and preserve the quality of malt. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of commercial β-Glucanase addition in malt produced within reduced germination time (64 h). Micro-malting was conducted with BRS-Caue and Elis barley cultivars at germination time 64 h and 96 h. The β-Glucanase concentration applied were 0, 25, 50 and 100 mg.kg-1. Barley, malt and wort samples were analyzed to check their physical-chemical features. Beers were produced with BRS-Caue malt and the physical-chemical and sensory attributes were analyzed. The commercial enzyme addition in BRS-Caue and Elis (64 h), at concentration 25 and 50 mg.kg-1, resulted in wort presenting proper β-Glucan content (≤ 178 mg.L-1). The beer produced with malt germinated for 64 h and added with 50 mg.kg-1 of β-glucanase was the one showing the largest number of physical-chemical and sensory parameters similar to the beer made with malt germinated for 96 h (conventional process). Commercial β-glucanase application in malt allowed accelerating the malting process without affecting the quality of the malt for beer production