Abstract
Near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy has been evaluated for the analysis of whole malt. Good agreement has been obtained between NIR and reference methods for moisture and total nitrogen. A correlation coefficient (r) of 0·974 and a standard error of prediction (SEP) of 0·13% was obtained for the moisture measurement. Similarly the correlation between methods for total nitrogen analysis was 0·964 with a SEP of 0·049%. In addition, NIR spectroscopy can be used to predict wort composition from scans on whole malt, without the need for mashing. Hot Water Extract (r 0·951, SEP 2·1 1°/kg), total carbohydrates (r 0·946, SEP 0·07%), fermentable sugars (r 0·903, SEP 0·11%), total soluble nitrogen (r 0·900, SEP 0·027%), free amino nitrogen (r 0·857, SEP 1·0 mg/100 ml) and fermentability (r 0·884, SEP 0·90%) can be measured using this technique. Since no sample preparation is required, NIR spectroscopy provides a rapid method for simultaneous measurement of all these parameters in under two minutes.
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