ASSESSING MALTING QUALITY BY THE AUTOLYSIS OF BARLEY

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Abstract
There has been prolonged speculation over the past thirty years on the relationship between the properties of aqueous extracts of barley and malting quality. On reviewing the literature on this subject, the concensus of opinion is that the total amount of gum or β-glucan in the barley does not correlate with malting quality. The cytolytic potential of both barley and malt, on the other hand, appears the more important parameter. Present evidence is that measurements made on aqueous extracts, either by viscosity or β-glucan determination, are more indicative of barley cytolytic activity than they are a true measure of gum content. Low β-glucan values in some barleys may therefore be artefacts of enzymic hydrolysis.

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