Physicochemical characterisation of barley malts available for theArgentine craft beer industry

Abstract

According to market statistics, the consumption and production of craft beer in the world and in Argentina have exponentially grown in recent years. However, there is no complete characterisation of the malts available for these small producers, even though they are one of the fundamental raw materials in beer production. The aim of this work was to characterise the base malts used in craft production, given that their physicochemical properties are a fundamental parameter for conditioning the final product. Moisture, ash, protein, lipids, total fibre and carbohydrates were determined according to EBC and AOAC methods, obtaining the following results, respectively: 5.15 g/100g ± 0.85; 1.91 g/100g ± 0.12; 10.44 g/100g ± 0.21; 1.76g/100g ± 0.17; 4.46 ± 0.62; 76.28g/100g ± 1.59. Protein profiles of the malt extracts were also characterised by vertical SDS-PAGE electrophoresis according to the Laemmli method, which have a direct impact on beer quality. Finally, a principal component statistical analysis was performed on the collected data. The values obtained are in agreement with those reported by other authors for malts of other varieties and geographical origin.