Abstract:
Unmalted cereals or pseudocereals, including amaranth and quinoa can partially replace malt in beer production. Cereals, such as barley as well as malted grains are rich in β-glucan. During brewing it comes to wort and then is detected in the final product. The β-glucan is known to cause problems during wort and beer filtration, as it increases viscosity. Moreover, high molecular β-glucan may generate turbidity in the final product [1]. On the other hand, it can be advantageous from the nutritional point of view [2]. Substitution of malt with unmalted cereals or pseudocereals may even increase β-glucan content in wort and then in beer. It is connected with: (1) lower
amount of malt being used and consequently lower β-glucanase activity, synthesized in grains during malting, (2) higher amount of high molecular polysaccharides coming from grains, which
weren’t modified during malting [3]. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in β-glucan content during wort and beer production when 10 or 30 % malt was replaced with unmalted quinoa or amaranth.
