Optimalt - EU-Project - Case Study

The malting process is the first stage of beer production. It transforms the barley into malt through a germination process that needs to be well controlled. The quality of the barley is key to finally obtaining a premium end product, thus the malting quality (MQ) of barley needs to be assessed by a reliable technique. However, parameters currently used for assessing malting quality of barley are complex and based on methods such as visual appraisals and chemical analysis that are time and labour intensive, prone to operator interpretation, and not always accurate, etc.