Successful Malt Replacement

MAKING great beer used to be all about the malt. Today, many brewers are going in new directions to offset high often-volatile malt prices, and reduce the carbon footprint of their processes. One of the ways is to replace a part of the malt with barley.

What are the consequences of such a move? At face value, the decision to replace part of the malt from brewing formulations seems drastic. It is in the malt that the endogenous enzymes exist to support the brewing process in respect of extract yield, wort separation, fermentation and filtration. With the reduced amounts of endogenous enzymes, how can it be possible to achieve a successful brew?

Quality, yield and the environment

Due to variations in malt quality, brewers have long faced the challenge of ensuring consistency in brewing performance and the final beer. Combined with years of continuous increases in malt prices, this has encouraged widespread interest in the use of exogenous brewing enzymes to eliminate processing hurdles and ensure malt raw materials give maximum yield and quality.

The development in enzyme technology has taken the drama out of optimising endogenous malt enzymes – and provided the inspiration for replacing some of the malt in brewing formulations with other, less expensive cereals, such as barley.

Another trend within brewing is linked to the rise of environmental awareness. Reducing their carbon footprint has become an important priority for many brewers today. The energy-intensive process involved in converting barley into malt is an obvious target for environmental improvement. Consequently, enzyme solutions that enable partial malt replacement are a helping hand towards brewers’ environmental goals.

The next level of efficiency

The fact is that obtaining a consistent brewing performance with unmalted barley could not be easier. The broad DuPont Danisco range of brewing enzymes is designed to smooth over processing issues and makes the best of beer with malt in combination with other cereal raw materials. The tested solutions include opportunities for optimising extract yield, adjunct liquefaction, mash separation, fermentation, beer filtration, stabilisation, and speciality beer production.

When it comes to partial barley brewing, one of the company's solutions in particular has proven to take efficiency to the next level. The enzyme solution, Alphalase AP4, has been specially developed for beers where up to 60% of the malt is replaced by barley. Using this speciality enzyme, brewers can also look forward to significant cost savings.

Robust and heat-stable, Alphalase AP4 is an ideal supplement to the enzymes naturally present in malt. Due to the unique combination of -amylases, it secures fast liquefaction, even at a low water-to-grist ratio. Improved extract and alcohol yields can also be obtained when using malt and/or barley with gelatinisation temperatures in the high end. The presence of a heat-stable β-glucanase makes it possible to mash in at a high temperature, saving energy and costs. At the same time, the neutral protease in the blend ensures the release of sufficient free amino nitrogen for utilisation by the yeast at no expense to head retention.

Cost savings at a low dose

In commercial plant trials, Alphalase AP4 has demonstrated top performance. Depending on local conditions and raw material prices, considerable cost savings are possible even when as little as 20% of the malt is replaced with barley.

Figure 1 shows results obtained when using the enzyme solution in a 30% barley brew compared with a 100% malt and benchmark sample in a 30% barley brew. The data shows that when applied to a 30% barley mash, the functional brewing enzyme makes it possible to achieve extract yield, RDF and alcohol levels close to those of a 100% malt mash and potentially improve foam stability in the beer.

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