A comparison of maize, sorghum and barley as brewing adjuncts

Sorghum and maize adjunct, at a 5 to 20% level, resulted in a decrease of extract recovery, solubilisation of nitrogen, and production of free amino nitrogen and peptide nitrogen progressively. Both sorghum and maize adjuncts released higher levels of FAN and peptide nitrogen in their extracts than barley adjuncts, but the peptide levels were higher in sorghum than maize and barley adjuncts. The solubilisation of nitrogen and hydrolysis of the soluble nitrogen were higher for high nitrogen barley adjunct than for low nitrogen barley. Although maize adjunct is used extensively in brewing, the results of this study showed that sorghum has the potential to release higher levels of peptides than maize. This difference may influence fermentation potential.