Malt Quality Characteristics of Selected Maize Varieties

In tropical and sub-tropical regions, the cultivation of barley is generally very limited and far less viable for brewing. This study was intended to investigate the potential of released maize varieties for malt purpose. Seventeen released maize varieties were collected from Bako, Ambo and Melkassa Agricultural Research Centers. The varieties were investigated for the most critical chemical compositions, germination test and malt quality. AMH-851 variety had the highest crude protein and ash contents. The highest moisture absorption (49.2%) and germination energy (82%) was noticed in MK-1 maize variety. Insignificant variation and less malting loss (0.7g) was noticed for MK-141 and BH-661 varieties. A significant increment in protein content was observed in maize malt compared to the un-malted grain. AMH-851had the highest (13.8%) and MK-2 showed the lowest (11.2%) malt protein content and the highest kolbach index. In its coarse and fine extract contents, BH-661 (69.93%) and BH-540 (69.29%) varieties had the highest and did not show a significant variation. A range of 6.8 to 29.07 wk enzymatic activity was observed among the selected maize malt with the highest for AMH-851 followed by BH-547 and the lowest for Limu variety. It was noticed that maize grains grown in intermediate agro-ecology could be used as potential malt for brewing purpose.