The effect of weather and the term of malting on malt quality

The effect of the weather on the physiological and malting parameters of spring barley was studied. The dependence of malt quality on the course of weather during the caryopsis growth and development in the ear was statistically confirmed. Germinating caryopses responded statistically significantly to a higher sum of precipitation over the entire growing period (r = -0.48), and higher temperatures (r = -0.43) and radiation (r = -0.43) in the 14-day period before harvest by a lowered ethylene production, malting yield increased with the reduced ethylene production (r = -0.35). Reduced content of carbon dioxide released by germinating caryopses depended highly statistically significantly on higher temperatures (r = -0.86) and radiation during 14 days before harvest (r = -0.88). β-glucan content in wort (r = 0.50) and malt modification (r = -0.21) depended statistically significantly on the precipitation sum over the entire vegetation period (the more precipitations, the lower β-glucan content). Malt modification was in positive statistically significant correlation with the sum of temperatures (r = 0.46) and radiation in the 14-day period before harvest (r = 0.39).