In the 2-year joint research project searching for gushing causative factors in malt and beer1 a fingerprint method for gushing potential in malt using MALDI-TOF technology was developed.
The following step was to optimize the method in order to obtain a simple, quick, robust and cost‐efficient analysis protocol for the method.
In this context, a one-year validation of the analytical method phase was initiated by both funding bodies (EUROMALT and EBC). All work related to the project was carried out at the Raw Materials Laboratory of the VLB Malting and Brewing institute in Berlin (Chaired by Professor Frank Rath) and is presented at the VLB October Conference 2017.
On the basis of an extended reference sample set which included malts from several crop years and provenances, new regression models were calculated to clearly identify gushing negative from gushing positive malt samples and to differentiate between samples with low, medium and high gushing risk. Validation experiments proved the method to provide consistent, reliable and accurate results with a good repeatability within one laboratory and the first comparisons between two laboratories are promising.
The final analysis method and prediction models enable an evaluation of gushing risks at a high level of confidence, thereby meeting the necessary requirements for an application in routine analysis.
EUROMALT and EBC will initiate a ring-test between laboratories in order to validate the method.
