Traditionally, the main raw material for beer has been malt, which is 30-50% more expensive than adjuncts. In modern-day brewing, it is therefore popular to replace a portion of the malt with maize (corn) grits, barley, sorghum, rice and other starch sources.
“Since enzymes for fermentation became commercially viable in the 1960s, brewers and enzyme manufacturers have been developing ideas for substituting malt with unmalted raw materials and exogenous enzymes,” says Patrick Patterson, global marketing manager at Novozymes.
“In many popular beer brands, 20-40% of the malt is replaced with unmalted raw materials depending on the region and the needs of consumers, but the idea is to substitute even higher portions of the malt and maybe even replace the malt with 100% barley or other adjuncts plus a cocktail of enzymes.”
Standard malt is derived from barley; the main difference between the two is that malt contains more active enzymes. In addition, the barley grain is partly degraded, especially the cell walls and one third of the proteins, while most of the starch is unchanged.
“In principle, malt can be substituted with barley if sufficient enzymes are available during mashing to produce high-quality wort. This can be realised with barley brewing enzyme solutions,” says Sten Aastrup, customer solutions manager for brewing at Novozymes.
“With our latest enzyme solutions, we can now substitute up to 50% or more of the malt with barley, representing raw material cost savings in the range of 15-25% without compromising on wort or beer quality.”
And the use of barley as an adjunct has other advantages besides cost savings. The barley husk eases wort filtration, and the raw barley grains contribute useful amounts of beta-amylase to the mash as well as other enzymes such as peptidase and phosphatase.
“Barley also contributes to palatability and beer foam stability,” adds Patrick Patterson. “And there’s another benefit. Less malt means less CO2 emissions, which supports the sustainability claims of the brewers.”
Brewing with barley and enzymes
Brewing adjuncts contain insufficient amounts of active enzymes or none at all.
“When brewing with barley, brewers must rely on highly active malt or exogenous enzymes to provide the necessary activity for starch conversion, formation of FAN and degradation of polymers such as glucans and arabinoxylans,” says Sten Aastrup.
Novozymes offers convenient blends, typically containing alpha-amylases, beta-glucanases, arabinoxylanase and proteases. These enzyme cocktails simplify the enzymatic mash treatment because several enzyme activities are dosed at once. The enzymes are added in the brewhouse at mashing-in.
“Novozymes offers the Ceremix® product range, specially designed for barley brewing solutions. Ceremix can be used alone or in combination with other Novozymes products,” says Patrick Patterson. “Ceremix ensures enzymatic breakdown of the barley grain components, resulting in high-quality wort when substituting up to 50% or more of the malt with barley. The brewing process, however, can remain the same as with malt with no additional time needed.”
The brewhouse of the future
With the increased worldwide focus on cost-efficiency, the future development of barley brewing and the increased use of barley as a substitute for malt is inevitable.
“Through the development of new beer brands, barley shares will probably be further increased,” says Radivoj Glavardanov, brewing consultant for Novozymes. “I believe it is realistic to expect growth in the production of beer without malt. All this could happen with even better complex enzyme preparations.”