MILLING ENERGY OF BARLEY

Abstract

A new apparatus for the rapid measurement of energy required to mill barley is described. This ‘Comparamill’ consists of a flywheel connected to a microhammer mill in such a way that the flywheel drives the hammers during milling, and several milling operations have been automated. When grain samples of currently used varieties grown in small field plots were compared, hot water extracts made of micromalted samples correlated (r = −0·59) with milling energy measurements on resting grains. The results also demonstrate an environmental effect on malting performance and milling energy. Samples of certain varieties with unusual grain nitrogen contents did not malt in accordance with NIAB recommended list gradings. Furthermore samples of the variety, Mazurka grown in a particular environment were an exception to the correlation between milling energy and extract. This correlation improves (r = − 0·76) if all of the Mazurka samples are omitted.