Since the 1970s, Kerry has been involved in developing efficient brewing processes for the production of clear lager beer from sorghum. The importance of this work was highlighted when, in the 1980s, the Nigerian government banned the importation of malted barley into Nigeria. This forced local breweries to brew exclusively from sorghum and maize. With optimised levels of commercial enzymes and brewing ingredients, high quality clear lager beer can be produced from sorghum. Sorghum is currently available to brewers as malt, or as a raw unmalted cereal in the form of grits or whole grain. While sorghum has been successfully used to replace malted barley in African countries such as Nigeria, the recent interest in gluten-free beer has highlighted sorghum, a gluten-free cereal, as a leading contender for the production of gluten-free beers.
Typical Sorghum Brewing Problem | Kerry's Solution |
Poor extract levels | Promalt |
Poor mash or beer filtration | Promalt, Biofase™, Bioglucanase |
Insufficient levels of free amino nitrogen | Promalt, Bioprotease |
High mash viscosities and starch positive wort | Hitempase |
Limited vitamins, essential salts and amino acids for yeast | Yeastex |
Poor wort fermentability | Bioferm, FA Conc, Promalt |
Poor foam stability | Biofoam K, Biofoam AT |