VIEW ARTICLE    DOI: 10.1094/ASBCJ-35-0009

Reduced Effluent Steeping in the Malting Process. Gert Sommer, Versuchs- und Lehranstalt fuer Brauerei in Berlin, Seestrasse 13, 1000 Berlin (West) 65, Germany. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 35:0009, 1977.

In earlier years, no great importance was attached to the amount of water consumption in maltings, but there is now increasing legal pressure to reduce water usage and thus the amount of waste liquids. This investigation was to show the influence of a drastic reduction of the amount of water used in steeping on the quality of malt and beer. A noticeable saving can be achieved only by reuse of steep water or by spraying water on barley during germination. Reuse of steep water (without costly purification and processing) delayed germination and was unsatisfactory. Several pilot tests were made by spraying water on barley in a germinating compartment. The procedure influenced malt and beer quality as follows: The pH and color of the Congress wort rose noticeably (pH plus 0.16, color [EBC] plus 1.1); all other analytical values of the malt remained almost the same. In the brewery, the sprayed malt wort was slower in lautering, and fermented considerably faster. The quality differences of the beer were relatively small. The color increased by 0.5 and the pH by 0.07 units, and the tannin content was reduced by 8 mg/l. All other analytical data were normal. Neither the flavor nor the flavor stability of the beer was affected by this particular malting process.

Keywords: Spray steeping, Steeping, Waste, Water usage.