I’ll stick with malted barley, thank you

A company called Novozymes has introduced a new brewing enzyme “capable of working without malt and with barley as the only raw material.”

Does that sound like something you want in your beer?

Launched at Drinktec (in Germany) this week, Ondeo Pro is marketed as a tool to offer brewers freedom and flexibility than existing options. Allowing brewers to switch completely from malt to barley also helps cut costs by reducing the amount of raw material needed.

What about flavor?

There’s more to the malting process than just modifying barley so it can be used to produce alcohol. Maltsters add flavor. That’s pretty obvious when we’re talking about stuff like chocolate malt, but also true of plain ol’ pale malts.

I’ve written about this before (part I and part II) so won’t belabor the point.

Several American brewers attend Drinktech, so maybe one or more of them will have insights to share next week at the Great American Beer Festival.

4 thoughts on “I’ll stick with malted barley, thank you”

  1. Dave – I suspect that was asked tongue in cheek, but were this to lead to redefining what constitutes “beer” – right now malted grains are required – then I guess it could muddy the already muddy waters when it comes to malternatives and taxes.

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