Relationship between grain milling energy and malting quality of barley

The study presents results of the research on the use of barley caryopses hardness for description and prediction of the malting quality. In 2001-2003, twelve barley varieties from three localities were analyzed. The content of protein, starch and non-starch polysaccharides was assessed in all grain samples. Grain hardness was determined using a modified grain milling energy method (GME). Subsequently, the samples were micromalted, and the selected quality parameters were established. Statistically significant differences in the level of hardness between the varieties were found. However, the effect of locality and growing year was not proven. Share of a variety in the total variability of hardness reached nearly 47%. Correlations between the level of hardness and the selected quality parameters of barley and malt were calculated. Hardness values, such as the correlations with the malt extract (-0.29**), the Kolbach index (-0.33**), friability (-0.48**),beta-glucan content in wort (0.43**), beta-glucan content in grain (0.53**) and malting quality index (MQI) (-0.42**) were established.