Cornerstone of Beer Flavour: Malt

Malt is the term for grain which has been modified to make its sugars dissolvable in water. In beer the predominately used malted grain is barley. So in the beer world when we say malt we are referring to malted grain which provides various sugars for fermentation, the greatest by volume being maltose.

 You may wonder why malt is also the name for a milkshake ingredient. Well this milkshake “malt” is actually a sugar extract made from malted barley grain. This malt has 55% of the sweetness level of sucrose (cane sugar) and is a mix of different sugars but again predominately maltose. We also use this extract in beer, generally when we want to increase the amount of fermentable sugars without adding more malted grain. It’s used primarily for higher alcohol beers.

Source: Image: Grain to Grain - Difference Between Barley, Malt and Grain

The malting process changes raw barley into grain suitable for use in alcohol production. Malted barley is barley that’s been steeped (soaked in water), germinated (left to sprout), dried, and sometimes roasted (brown or blacken with heat). The whole point is to emancipate the energy stored in the grain so that it becomes soluble in water during the beer process.

Source: Learn to Moonshine - How to Make A Grain Mash - Learn The Process To Making Moonshine From Grains.