You’ve probably heard it a thousand times. Read your malt certificate of analysis. Read your COA! Read your COA! Read your COA! But why? After all, malt is malt, right? Especially once you have your brewhouse dialed in. Well, there is a lot more to malt than meets the eye, and much of the information on a malt’s COA relates to how well things do or don’t work in the brewhouse.

 

By: Living a Stout Life

 

A malt certificate of analysis is precisely what you need to maximize efficiency and consistency. 

 

Malt COAs Inform Product and Process

Malt doesn’t often capture the spotlight for drinkers. It is, however, the heart and soul of a beer, magically combining flavor, aroma, color, and mouthfeel. Whether providing a dance floor to let hops steal the show in an IPA or building a deep pool of complex flavors in a robust stout, malt is the foundation to achieve a stunning beverage.

 

When a maltster is crafting the malts that allow a beer to shine, they have much more than flavor, aroma, color, and mouthfeel at the front of mind. Those are the tangible results, but a maltster is tracking several key elements of the malt that dictates its quality not only regarding its potential for maximum malt extract, but also for providing consistent results.

 

The analysis of these elements are relayed via a malt certificate of analysis or malt COA. A malt analysis sheet doesn’t simply tell you the flavors and color to expect from a malt. It is also your roadmap to brewhouse performance, quality, and consistency.

 

Your malt’s COA informs you on how much malt extract to expect. It also provides guidance on necessary adjustments to make in the brewhouse to achieve desired results. Alas, your brewhouse’s adjustments for malt are never a set-it and forget-it situation.

 

Why You Need to Read Your Malt Certificate of Analysis

Malt has been a fairly stable ingredient for years. For the most part, brewers know what they are getting and don’t have to be overly concerned about large swings in consistency.

 

Malt, however, is made from barley. And barley is an agricultural product that is susceptible to change due to environmental inconsistencies. Your malt COA helps identify these inconsistencies, large or small, so you can adjust for them in your brewhouse to get the most out of your malt and so that your beer can be as consistent as possible.

 

Malt COAs versus Typical Analysis and Sell Sheets

Not all malt analysis is created equal. There is a tremendous difference between a malt COA and the typical analysis of a malt on a website or that malt’s sales sheet specifications.

 

What Malt Typical Analysis and Product Data Sheets Tell You

The specifications of a malt that you see on a website or a sales sheet is great information if you are comparing malt suppliers or trying to locate a particular malt to fit your needs. But it is not the information you’ll need to dial in your brewhouse processes and efficiency. These specifications are generally baselines and/or tolerances that provide information about the general quality and characteristics of that malt from that supplier.

 

What a Malt COA Tells You

By contrast, a malt certificate of analysis is precisely what you need to maximize efficiency and consistency. A malt COA is aligned to each specific batch of malt because each batch can have slight differences depending on agricultural conditions, blending, and other factors.

 

The malt you receive has a COA that tells you specifics that you can adjust for in the brewhouse. Adjustments can maximize malt extract, reduce lautering times, more accurately target color and gravity, improve head retention, improve yeast activity, correctly develop mouthfeel, and more.

 

At Malteurop, we do our best to keep our malt specifications as close to what you expect as possible. But our barley comes from several hard-working farmers from many different areas of North America. There are agricultural differences that naturally occur not only by region, but from one growing season to the next.

 

Malt Analysis Sheet Terms to Understand

We produce a highly accurate malt COA for every batch of malt that we deliver so you have all the information you need to create beer that is every bit as good as the barley going into it. All that information is lab tested and presented in a standardized format.

 

But all that information has to mean something for it to have relevance to brewhouse adjustment. Here, we point out some of the key metrics to understand from a malt spec sheet.

 

These analyses are most directly applicable to base malts. Specialty malts are more readily used for augmenting the flavor, aroma, color, and mouthfeel of a beer, while not being major contributors to other elements that are noted on most certificates of analysis.

 

Extract

The amount of malt extract, which directly impacts specific gravity, is derived from three common variables on a COA: Fine Grind Extract, Dry Basis; Coarse Grind Extract, Dry Basis; and Fine-Coarse Difference.

 

These values represent how much starch can be converted to sugar (both fermentable and non-fermentable). It is used in recipe development to determine how much malt needs to be used to achieve the desired original gravity.

 

Extract is commonly expressed as coarse grind or fine grind (CG or FG) and either dry basis (moisture excluded) or as is (moisture included). Most COAs use dry basis measurements, as it removes the moisture variable so that comparisons are more direct.

 

Fine Grind is the maximum amount of extract that could be achieved in a lab setting, where the malt is basically ground to flour. It would be unrealistic to expect these results in the brewhouse, but is an indicator of malt quality.

 

Coarse Grind is the maximum amount of extract expected from a grind that is more similar to what you would normally see in the brewhouse, although the actual amount of extract achieved is likely to be less than the Coarse Grind analysis. This is because of the difference between lab procedures and realistic brewhouse procedures.

 

Fine-Coarse Difference is simply the difference between the Fine Grind Extract result and the Coarse Grind Extract result. For most well-modified malts, the difference will typically fall between 0.5 and 1.5, where single-step infusion mashing works well. A difference that is much less or much greater can require different methods to be employed to achieve desired results.

 

Protein

Protein is what provides the enzymes that are critical to all things brewing. They are necessary to help the malt to make available components that foster starch conversion to fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. They also enable the elements necessary for lautering, filtration, and yeast metabolization.

 

The key protein data points on a malt COA are Soluble Protein, Total Protein, and the Kolbach Index or S/T Ratio (they are one in the same).

 

Soluble Protein is the amount of water soluble protein retained in the mash. This should be between 4.5-5.5%. It provides an indicator of yeast nutrition and head retention.

 

Total Protein is, as its name implies, the total amount of protein in the malt. Lower protein equals higher fermentable extract. Conversely, higher protein equals lower fermentable extract. But protein is a bit of a balancing act that impacts stability both negatively and positively. Adequate protein levels are needed for foam stability, though excessive levels can negatively affect colloidal stability. An ideal amount of Total Protein is generally in the 9.5% to 12.5% range.

 

The Kolbach Index (or S/T Ratio) is the best indicator of overall malt modification. Normal values for a well-modified base malt are between 39% and 46%. A Pilsner malt will typically be at the lower end of this percentage with most other base malts in the 42% to 46% range. Some specialty malts will be upwards of 52%.

 

Hitting 38% or below on the Kolbach Index can lead to poor head retention. Values climbing above 46% can lead to issues with clarity.

 

Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN)

Free Amino Nitrogen is a measurement of the amino acids that serve as nutrients to keep yeast happy and effective during fermentation. A healthy FAN level is between 190 and 230 ppm.

 

Diastatic Power / Enzymes

Diastatic Power is an indicator of enzyme activity in a malt. In a base malt, it needs to be high enough to convert starches into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars in itself and in any accompanying specialty malts or unmalted adjuncts.

 

A Diastatic Power of about 115 degrees Lintner or higher is typically enough for most base malts to be effective in the brewhouse. Higher Diastatic Power equates to support for increased attenuation, processing higher levels of adjunct additions, as well as higher gravity brewing.

 

Alpha-Amylase

Closely related to Diastatic Power, Alpha-Amylase is one of the key enzymes in the mash. It breaks down starch into smaller, more digestible units. Typically, an Alpha-Amylase measurement of 50 or greater will be more than sufficient.

 

Assortment

Another key metric on a malt COA is assortment, which refers to the amount of plump and thin barley kernels. This is expressed as the percentage of total malt that remains on different sized screens of a sieve analysis, commonly 7/64”, 6/64”, and 5/64”. The larger kernels remaining on the larger screens indicate the plump kernels.

 

This plump assortment is relative to how much extract you can get from a malt. A higher percentage of plump kernels generally equates to more starch in the kernels and the potential for higher extract.

 

Moisture

All malts contain a small amount of moisture. A typical North American base malt has between 4% to 5% moisture content. Higher moisture contents can cause gumminess and reduce brewhouse yield, as well as increased risk of mold or infection. If the moisture content is too low, husks shatter and there is an increase in dust during milling.

 

Color

Color doesn’t affect efficiency, but it is one of the first elements that a beer drinker registers, so it is important. The key thing to note in malt is consistency of color so that your recipe’s final color represents the style you want to achieve. Keep in mind that factors such as the length of the boil have a direct effect on the final color of the beer.

 

Viscosity

Viscosity measures the components that can negatively impact lauter performance. Beta-Glucans are one of these components and are also represented separately on the COA.

 

A good Viscosity result is usually below 1.5, allowing for good run-off times. Beta-Glucan should be below 140 ppm. A measurement above 140 ppm indicates a high potential for lautering and filtration issues.

 

Putting Malt COA Information to Use

As you can see, there is a lot of information about your malt to be had from its malt certificate of analysis. It is important in many different ways.

 

COAs inform you of the quality of your malt so you know what you’re getting is what you expect. It helps track down malt extract efficiency issues, which is key to efficient production. But it also can help narrow many other specific issues in the brewhouse, such as lautering, filtration, under attenuation, etc.

 

If you learn to understand your malt COA, it will go a long way to increasing efficiency and reducing costs (and frustrations). And any time you have a question about your malt COA, contact your Malteurop Craft Sales Manager. They are well versed in COAs and can answer any questions you might have.

 

Premium grains from field to flavor.

  

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About Malteurop Malting Company (MMC)

Malteurop Malting Company (MMC) is based in North America—specializing in growing and producing quality malts for the beer, whiskey, and food processing industries. With local farms and Malthouses spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Malteurop’s commitment to excellence is fully ingrained into every batch it produces, ensuring businesses of any size can create the finest beverages and food products on the planet.

 

Visit www.malteuropmaltingco.com to learn how we can support your malting needs.  

 

Contact us at customersuccess@malteurop.com or (844) 546-MALT (6258) for questions or to place your order.

 

Malting is our passion. Quality is our promise.