Self-Assessment Questions

  1. **What would you expect to see if you visually analysed malt that was produced from barley affected by drought? How would this affect brewhouse processes?
  2. **You are experiencing problems with milling your malt. The malt is visually grey, has lost its malty smell, and is soft. What is the root cause for these milling issues?
  3. **Malt quality is influenced by barley quality. Your barley has experienced a hot and humid season, with rain during harvest. What would you expect to see on the CoA of the malt you have purchased? Why should you hesitate to brew with this malt?
  4. **There is a sharp increase in dust collection levels whilst you are off-loading a new batch of malt.

    (a) What could be the cause of this problem?

    (b) How would this affect brewhouse processes?

  5. **You are about to purchase malt. The CoA shows that the following parameters are out of the normal specification range of analysis (indicated within brackets):

    (a) β-Glucan 250 mg/L (< 200 mg/L)

    (b) Viscosity 1.7 cP @ 20˚C (< 1.65 cP @ 20˚C)

    (c) HWE 70% (> 80%)

    Explain what could have gone wrong during the malting process, in detail.

  6. **The fermenting vessels in your plant hold four brews. During the analysis of the first brew in the kettle, you notice the colour is extremely high, and extract is lower than specification. There were no delays in the brewhouse, and no speciality malt is added for colour.

    (a) What is the root cause of the high colour? What could have gone wrong within the process? 

    (b) How will this process abnormality affect starch conversion?

  7. ***Although the mashing operation was problem free, after the completion of the mash stand, the wort has tested positive for starch.

    (a) What could be the problem?

    (b) Explain which enzymes are active during the germination phase, and how they expose the starch for enzymatic breakdown.

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