Adjuncts & Non-Whole Grain Malt Extracts

 

Malts (and Adjuncts) provide the fermentable sugars that are required to make beer (and to make beer "sweet").

The process of Malting converts insoluble starch to soluble starch, reduces complex proteins, generates nutrients for yeast development, and develops enzymes.

For the beginning Home Brewer using Malt extracts, both in the dry and syrup forms, is perhaps the easiest way to get started.

 

Type Description
Malt Extracts Malt extracts can be used as a sole source of fermentable sugar, or they can be combined with barley malt. The malt extract comes in the form of syrup or dried powder.

If the final product is a dried powder, the malt extract has undergone a complete evaporation process by means of "spray-drying," thus removing almost all of the water. For simplicity, use an 85% conversion factor when substituting dried malt for syrup.

Syrups are more popular than dried malt extract, possibly because they are less trouble to store. A common problem noticed in malt extract beers is the thin, dry palate, which correlates with a low terminal gravity.

Another common problem is the lack of a true "dark malt" flavor in dark beers.
 
Refined Starches Refined starches can be prepared from many cereal grains. In commercial practice, refined wheat starch, potato starch, and cornstarch have been used in breweries; corn starches, in particular, are used in the preparation of glucose syrups.

Wheat starch has been employed in breweries in Australia and Canada, where local conditions make it economical to use.

However, in the USA the most common source of refined starch is corn.
 
Syrups & Sugars The British are known for their use of syrups and sugars, which are mainly used as nitrogen dilutents. The reduction in proteins leads to shorter fermentation periods, cleaner yeast, and sharper filtration (allowing more beer to be processed with the same amount, or less, of filter aid).

Another advantage in using syrups and sugars is that the carbohydrate component can be controlled and custom manufactured to the needs of the brewer. Syrups and sugars also allow for shorter boiling times and high-gravity brewing, and they can be used to expand brew house capacity. Finally, syrups and sugars are handled easily in bulk form.

Cereal adjuncts need handling systems such as conveyors, dust collectors, and milling operations. Brewing syrups and sugars, having already undergone gelatinization and saccharification, can be added directly to the kettle or can be used in priming, thereby bypassing the mashing operation.
 
Sugar Dextrose is also known as corn sugar and is available in the trade in the purified form as a spray dry or as a crystalline powder. Dextrose sugar is added directly to the brew kettle during boiling.

Various grades of sucrose are used in the brewing industry. Few brewers today use raw sugar; most prefer the more consistent products of the sugar refiner. Granulated sugar, the normal end product of the refining process, may be added directly to the kettle, but usually is dissolved in a solution before being added.

Malto-dextrin is the most complex fraction of the products of starch conversion. It is tasteless, gummy, and hard to dissolve. It is often said to add body (palate fullness) to beer, increase wort viscosity, and add smoothness to the palate of low-malt beers. However, it is easy to increase the dextrin content of grain beers by changing the mash schedule or using dextrin malt. Malto-dextrin is of interest mainly as a supplement to extract brews.

Caramel is used in brewing as a flavor and/or coloring agent. For example, many milds and sweet stouts contain caramel for both flavor and color. Caramel may be used either in the kettle or in primings to make minor adjustments to the color of the beer, but the choice of malt grist and the grade of adjuncts added to the kettle will determine the fundamental color of the beer.

Invert sugar is a mixture of dextrose (also called glucose) and fructose syrup.
 
Demerara Sugar Demerara Cane Sugar is a large amber granule with a hint of molasses inside each crystal.  It can add pleasant toffee flavor.

Demerara is a light brown, partially refined, sugar produced from the first crystallization during processing cane juice into sugar crystals (this process is similar to what happens with naturally evaporated cane juice).

Unlike brown sugar, which has the added molasses flavor, Demerara has a natural caramel-like flavor that hasn’t been refined out. This lends warm caramel notes to whatever you add the sugar.

Demerara sugar is also referred to as Turbinado sugar in many markets, which has more to do with how the sugar is processed in turbines, than where it originates.
 
Cocoa Cocoa solids are a mixture of many substances remaining after Cocoa butter is extracted from cacao beans. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder, cocoa, and cacao. In contrast, the fatty component of chocolate is cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter is 50% to 57% of the weight of cocoa beans and gives chocolate its characteristic melting properties.

Cocoa powder contains several minerals including calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc.

Cocoa solids can range from a light brown to a deep reddish brown color. The varying color corresponds to the pH value of the cocoa. Safe, acceptable pH for cocoa ranges from 5.4 to 8.1 depending on how processed the cocoa powder is. Cocoa with a pH of 5.4–5.8 are considered natural powders and have a light brown color.

 Lightly alkalized cocoa solids have a pH of 6.8–7.2 and are a darker brown color.

Moderately alkalized cocoa solids have a pH of 7.2–7.5 and have a deep reddish brown color, and heavily alkalized powders with a pH of 7.5–8.1 have dark red and black colors.
 
Syrups The two major syrups used in brewing are sucrose- and starch-based. The sucrose-based syrups have been refined from natural sources such as sugar cane or beets.

The starch-based syrups are produced from cereals by hydrolysis using acid, exogenous enzymes, or a combination of the two to produce a range of syrups with different fermentabilities.

In recent years, there has been a great development in the range of starch-based syrups produced from corn and wheat. In the U.S., these adjuncts are produced exclusively from yellow corn; while in Europe, they are produced from corn and wheat.

The starch-based syrups are commonly referred to as "glucose" syrups. This name is misleading, however, since the syrups contain a large range of sugars, depending on the method of manufacture: dextrose, maltose, maltotriose, maltotetraose, and larger dextrins.