Behaviour of malted cereals and pseudo-cereals for gluten-free beer production

Beer, a beverage frequently requested by celiac patients, is toxic to them due the gluten content derived from traditional raw materials used in the brewing process. To understand a possible alternative use of cereals and pseudo-cereals, micro-malting experiments on sorghum, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth were performed using different malting parameters to study their brewing behaviour. Steeping in dilute NaOH solution was one parameter employed to understand any possible positive effect on malt quality. Alkaline steeping has been applied to pseudocereals for the first time and often showed an increase in total soluble nitrogen (TSN) and free amino nitrogen (FAN), especially with buckwheat, where two results showed the TSN content increased by about 500 and 1,000 mg/L. An interesting result was found with amaranth fermentability, which showed a fermentability of 56%, higher than what was previously reported. From these positive results for malt quality, it is possible to affirm that the cereals and pseudo-cereals investigated in this study could be employed for gluten-free beer production. Furthermore, the alkaline steeping seems to be a useful process variable for optimisation of malt quality. Future studies about its effect on the diastatic power could be conducted.