Brewing with Canadian Hulless Barley Varieties, CDC Freedom, CDC McGwire, and CDC Gainer

Abstract

Brewing trials were carried out with malt made from the Canadian hulless barley varieties, CDC Freedom, CDC McGwire, and CDC Gainer, generated from pilot malting trials at the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre. All-malt brews were done with 100, 90, and 70% hulless malt. Brews done with 90 and 70% hulless malt were supplemented with 10 and 30% of normal commercial malt. No difficulties were experienced during mashing for all three malt varieties. Conversion times for the trial hulless varieties were longer than those of the control commercial malt. Conversion time in the trials was reduced as the proportion of commercial malt in the trials increased. Wort separation time from the mash filter was also significantly higher for the hulless trials, although it was found that there was no correlation between the β-glucan content of the blend and the runoff time. CDC McGwire malt exhibited a faster runoff, followed by CDC Freedom and CDC Gainer. Under the same fermentation conditions, all brews fermented well and the achieved attenuation was comparable with the control brew with commercial malt. Beer sensory results indicated that the quality of beer brewed from the hulless barleys was satisfactory and no quality defects were noticed.