# Mashing With 100% Unmalted Barley



## Trough Lolly (11/4/06)

The next time somebody has a go at you for putting together a recipe that has unmalted barley and no base malt, you can point them to this rather technical but still interesting article on mashing with up to 100% unmalted barley in the grist...

Here's the conclusion as a starter:


> As shown in this paper, wort production from grists containing high levels of raw barley offers many challenges to the brewer. However, optimal levels of filterability, b-glucan breakdown, fermentable sugars, and a-amino nitrogen can be achieved with careful optimization of enzyme types, dosage levels, and mashing conditions of time, temperature, and application time with and without added malted grain.



Don't expect outstanding mash efficiency though! h34r: 

http://www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Articles.../TQ-42-0184.pdf

Cheers,
TL


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## Airgead (11/4/06)

Trough Lolly said:


> The next time somebody has a go at you for putting together a recipe that has unmalted barley and no base malt, you can point them to this rather technical but still interesting article on mashing with up to 100% unmalted barley in the grist...
> [post="119669"][/post]​



Well technically all the enzymes and stuff that the mash needs are present in the unmalted barley (though not very much as it is not germinated) so essentially they will almost be malting and mashing at the same time.

I'm sure the original stone age beers discovered this by accident.

I do note though that they are adding enzymes rather than relying on the tiny quantities present in the grain. 

Whether its worth it is another question...

Cheers
Dave


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## Kevin (13/4/06)

As with many MBAA articles, this one presents some theoretical evidence towards helping to _engineer_ beer, rather than brew it. In this article, reasons of tax avoidance and unavailable ingredients are the reasonings for the research. 

I believe that a researching of Guinness will find a reasonable percentage of raw barley is used as roasted, and perhaps flaked. Certainly a bit of history shows that they decided certain ingredients for tax avoidance purposes.

Raw barley is also used in the making of whiskey (those clever Irish!).

In this article, it is clear that they are referring to the actual use as an adjunct. They cite the legal perception of unmalted barley as an _adjunct._ The creation of 100% unmalted worts were for control and comparison purposes.

Certain statements within the paper make me think that TL may be on a bit of a lark, or just tweeking noses (who'da thunk it?)



> In less developed countries, malting facilities and malting conditions
> are quite often less than optimal.



and



> (Raw Barley) because of its low levels of essential enzymes (e.g., α-amylase, proteases, and glucanases), together with a relatively inaccessible starchy endosperm, high inclusions of unmalted barley (>20%) in the mash (without the aid of commercial enzymes) can lead to problems, such as low extract yields, high wort viscosities, decreased rates of lautering, fermentation problems, and beer haze problems



Surely a patriot like TL is not leading us to believe that Austrailia is 'less developed' and in need of beer that has 'fermentation problems, and beer haze problems?'

I'd rather get hazy from my beer than see it in my beer.

Kev.


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## Trough Lolly (19/4/06)

G'day Kev,

TL - the patriot! Indeed....!! :lol: 

I was actually staggering around the MBAA website, looking for a totally unrelated article when I found this paper - and yes, there are some generalisations that don't sit all that comfortably with me...and I agree that it's not something that I'm gonna rush out and try.

I like the contribution that unmalted barley has and regularly add 300g of flaked barley when I have some in the cupboard, but to do an entire brew with it is not something that I'm planning on doing in the near future!

Cheers,
TL the lark!  h34r:


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## wessmith (19/4/06)

TL, so called barley brewing was all the rage a decade or so back. The advent of a number of enzyme technology products really got all the commercial guys fired up thinking they had finally found a way to cut the maltster out of the loop! But the problems are insurmountable when beer stability and packaging requirements come together. Its no coincidence that all our Aussie mainstream products are primarily malt derived.

Come to think about it - a decade back there were quite a number of enzyme products available to the home brewer in small packages. Havnt seen these around for some time now. BTW enzyme technology is used commercially today but mainly in the mash or ferment to correct or achieve specific results like greater attenuation.

Wes


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## warrenlw63 (19/4/06)

You could always be radical and get a starter of Koji happening.  

Works for Saki (rice). Not sure how it would handle barley. h34r: 

Warren -


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## Trough Lolly (19/4/06)

G'day Wes - long time no hear - good to catch up with you!

Speaking of enzyme technology, I was looking for those very papers on the website - found an interesting article written by Wolfgang Hannemann back in 2002 regarding the use of commercially available alpha-acetolactate decarboxylase (ALDC) enzyme (sold as Maturex L by none other than the writer's company, Novozymes!!) in reducing the diacetyl generated during fermentation and reduce maturation time taken to lower diacetyl levels in beer.

Apologies if you've already read the paper, but its here:
http://www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Articles/2002/0916-05.pdf

I'll make a note to use this stuff, when I start brewing by the hectolitre!! h34r: 

Cheers,
TL


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