The malting process is the first stage of beer production.

It transforms the barley into malt through a germination process that needs to be well controlled.

The quality of the barley is key to finally obtaining a premium end product, thus the malting quality (MQ) of barley needs to be assessed by a reliable technique.

However, parameters currently used for assessing malting quality of barley are complex and based on methods such as visual appraisals and chemical analysis that are time and labour intensive, prone to operator interpretation, and not always accurate, etc.

The OPTIMALT project aims at developing a rapid and reliable on-line tool for assessing the malting quality of barley using automated optical analysis to overcome the limitations of current technologies.

It will contribute to improving the quality from seed to glass, thereby boosting the competitiveness of the European brewing sector, as well as the malting barley supply chain.