What is 'malt'?

What is 'malt'?

Jeff Evans (Freelance beer Writer) gives expert video advice on: What is 'beer'?; What is 'real ale'?; What is 'keg beer'? and more...

Malt Is The most popular cereal used by brewers is barley, but barley's not an easy cereal to use at the brewery. Its sugars are locked inside. In order to unlock those sugars, for fermination to take place, the barley has to be Malted. This is a process whereby the barley is partially germinated in order to open up the shoots and roots of the seed, and therefore the sugars, and then kilned, baked in an oven, to stop that germination carrying any further forward. By baking the barley corns in an oven, different flavors and characteristics can be applied to the Malt. It's like roasting coffee; you leave it in there for a little bit, it's only lightly roasted, biscuitty, nutty. You leave it there for longer, you get chocolate and coffee flavors developing as the Malt browns and darkens.