152 Evaluation of Brazilian’s malting barley potential.

R. M. de SÁ, F. BERTOLDI, A. de FRANCISCO. Cereal Science and Technology Lab, Dept. Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.

Brazil is the sixth beer producer world-wide with an average annual consumption of 35 liters per person. Never-the-less, the production of malt does not follow. Most of the malt used in the production of Brazilian malt is imported. Eventhough the legislation requires the use of at least 40% of national malt, the production of barley is not encouraged. Brazilian malt has a reputation of poor quality and unreliable performance. The only avaliable data relates to yield, plague resistance, and other agronomical findings. As a first step to improve malt quality, the main commercially avaliable cultivars were characterized in terms of their physico-chemical attributes. This work compares national and Argentinian barley cultivars in terms of chemical composition, beta-glucan contents, and grain microstructure.