LILLE 2024

Beer relies heavily on a cereal grain, which is grown on about half of our arable land in Europe, whereas pulses account for only 2%. Substituting a fraction of barley malt with pulses would support a healthy crop rotation in our fields. In addition to the positive effect on the environment, the use of pulses could help increase product diversity and introduce novel flavours and functionality to malt-based products. Pale ale-style beers were brewed at hectolitre-scale, where 24% of the malt bill was substituted with various unmalted and malted faba bean products. The resulting beers were analysed both fresh and after forced ageing. Sugars, FAN, aroma compounds and aldehydes were analyzed from the beers. During sensory analysis, the beers made with malted Sprau received ‘good’ scores for general beer quality and scored better than the ones made with unmalted faba beans. Furthermore, using malted Sprau also affected wort FAN and aldehyde profiles. Results demonstrate the potential of using Sprau for improving the sustainability and diversity of beer.

Drying prior to storage is a common process for maintaining the quality of barley grains harvested at high moisture contents. Germination capacity, germination energy and water sensibility are the main parameters that maltsters consider to start malting a variety in the logistics of a malt plant. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the industrial drying process on barley grains and its impact during storage (under the same conditions as undried grains) on barley quality for malt production. Two harvests were studied, using two varieties and two industrial drying plants. Barley samples were removed from: 1- trucks that arrived at the drying plant, 2- entry of the drier, 3- outlet of the drier and 4- samples from the same variety that was dried on the field. Results indicated that the drying process has no effect on barley quality parameters, and storage can be maintained for up to 16 months without affecting the germination capacity and energy. However, it was found that harvesting at high moisture contents has an impact on dormancy and barley composition compared to samples dried on the field, influencing the malt quality.

Historically, rice has been treated as a neutral flavor adjunct in brewing as opposed to being utilized as malted grain. Therefore, the malt quality of rice cultivars has been minimally evaluated to date. Nineteen globally diverse rice cultivars were analyzed for various chemical parameters important to malting including germination energy, protein, gelatinization temperatures (GT). The rice was then malted, and congress mashes were produced to measure several parameters important to brewing (extract, soluble protein, free amino nitrogen (FAN), GT, etc). The rice malts produced were saccharified to varying degrees, had high-level limit dextrinase activities, and potentially contained adequate amounts of FAN/protein to yield healthy fermentations. Moreover, rice cultivars with purple-pigmented bran were found to contain moderately high levels of β-amylase and could serve as novel natural gluten-free colorants for future beer and food recipes. Overall, these findings suggest that rice malt could offer a more climate-resilient and locally produced gluten-free source of starch for brewers and beverage/ food producers as compared to barley.

In 2009 the first research project in the rain out shelter at the LfL started with a field trial aimig to identify spring barley genotypes with superior reaction to drought stress. Since then a number of research- and breeding programmes at the LfL focussed on the identification of traits and markers for an efficient selection of stress tolerant genotypes. Particularly for malting barley it is obviously more important to maintain a superior grain and malting quality than to increase yield under drought stress. During the last 14 years different projects have been conducted, which could identify methods for the detection of drought tolerant genotypes. In a high throughput genotyping facility root growth and stem development was analysed under different growth conditions. Phenotyping methods in combination with molecular markers allowed the identificaton of tolerant varieties and genotypes as well as relevant genes. The talk summarises the research approaches and relevant results and provides a perspective for the application in variety development.