Development of a high-throughput screening platform to optimize enzyme production for ideal malting in view of improving process efficiency and beer flavour quality

Barley malt is essential for breweries, but high-quality barley malt production has to account for several conflicting demands. Modern brewing methods require a malt exhibiting a strong cytolysis of endosperm starch cells to enable access for amylases while brewing and to guarantee a high lauter/wort filtration performance. However, in commonly applied malt regimes a strong cytolysis also comes with a strong breakdown of barley storage proteins. While a certain degree of proteolysis is necessary for optimal fermentation, an extensive proteolysis will affect beer quality characteristics like foam- and flavour stability negatively. Thus, the maltster has to finely balance these enzymatic processes to produce a high-quality malt. A major challenge also lies in the unpredictability of ideal malting conditions as they are subject to biological and environmental factors. Therefore, the development of a high-throughput screening platform identifying conditions to produce an ideal barley malt is the central aim of this project.

Keywords:Barley, Malt, Cytolysis, Proteolysis, Enzymatic activity, Proteomics, High-throughput screening, Beer quality, Flavour stability

Disciplines:Proteomics, Bioprocessing, bioproduction and bioproducts