Malting and brewing qualities of some Nigerian rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties and some thoughts on the assessment of malts from tropical cereals.

The maiting qualities of six varieties of Nigerian rice were studied and compared with malts from sorghum and barley. A minimum of seven days was necessary for maximum yield of extract from malted rice. The beer brewed from the six rice malts were similar to each other and to those from sorghum and barley in analytical properties. The appropriateness of using methods designed for assessing barley malt should be re-examined for studying malts from tropical cereals. Meanwhile, it should be sufficient to determine the extract and the nitrogen content of the wort using the European Brewing methods to assess a tropical cereal for mall.