Glossary
Malting
Steeping, germinating and then kilning grain so that it develops the enzymes and modifies the starch needed for brewing.
The full record
Malting has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Malting — Persuade barley to begin germinating and then stop it, so the grain develops starch-converting enzymes and its starch becomes accessible.
Malting persuades barley to begin growing and then stops it. Germination produces the amylase enzymes that will later convert starch, and breaks down the cell walls and protein matrix that would otherwise lock the starch away. Kilning arrests the process and sets the malt’s colour and flavour.
How far germination is allowed to proceed is the malt’s degree of modification, and it determines what kind of mash the brewer needs.
Related
- Modification — How far germination was taken.
- Diastatic power — The enzyme capacity malting creates.
- Kilning — The step that sets colour and flavour.
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.