COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BUCKWHWEAT MALT AND BARLEY MALT.

Malt is the essential raw material for beer production. Currently, in Europe the most used cereal for beer is barley due to its many advantages in the manufacture of malt. Recently, research has intensified to replace this raw material for beer with other cereals or pseudo-cereals. These include buckwheat which does not contain toxic prolamins to celiac disease patients. Buckwheat is an annual plant of Polygonaceae family and is produced in many countries for its characteristics such as high economic value, easily consumable with versatile uses. The main objective of this research was to the evaluation of the quality of buckwheat malt and the comparison of the results obtained with barley malt, the conventional raw material for obtaining beer. Buckwheat was purchased from private producers from harvested in 2020 and barley malt was purchased from the Bermas SA Suceava Company and was used as a control in wort quality analyses. The resulting buckwheat malt and barley malt were then evaluated from a physical-chemical point of view according to European Brewery Convention methods: moisture content, malt extract content, saccharification rate, filtration rate, extract difference between fine and coarse ground malt, Kolbach index, wort pH and colour. Buckwheat malt and barley malt were evaluated by obtaining beer wort by the Congress method. The results of this study can be used to optimize the malting process of the three technological operations: steeping, germination and kilning of green malt for to improve buckwheat malt quality. The results of the study showed that buckwheat has the potential to be used as a raw material for the production of gluten-free beer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]