The Western Brewer May 1919
The quantity of barley allotted to the brewing industry in Austria was reduced in the course of the war to only 4 per cent of the amount used for this purpose in peace time. This resulted in a great reduction of wort gravities and in the extensive use of malt adjuncts. One of the chief adjuncts employed was millet. In using this material, it was found advisable to grind it to a grist containing about 85 per cent of fine meal, and to reject the husks, which are rich in tannins and tend to color the beer too strongly. Even with these precautions, the millet was found to confer a perceptible odor and flavor which could not be entirely eliminated. This disadvantage was in time avoided by a simple process of steeping and drying, which not only removed husk constituents of unpleasant flavor, but also rendered the somewhat glassy endosperm of the grains more soft and mealy. The work in the brewhouse was thereby simplified and the yield of extract increased. The quality of millet is very variable, and this leads to differences in wort filtration and break, as well as in the primary fer mentation, in spite of uniformity of working conditions. Red and dark brown millet is less suited for brewing than the yellow type with a fine husk.
Worts produced from malt and millet frequently became cloudy after cooling, even though they were previously bright and filtered well. This was due chiefly to separation of proteins, which also often cause further trouble by preventing a satisfactory clarification of the beer in cask. However, this does not seriously affect the quality of the beer. Fairly satisfactory beers of 4 per cent original gravity were produced, but they were not extremely popular, owing to a curious odor and flavor, which became especially noticeable if the beer was deficient in carbon dioxide.
Crescent City Brew Talk 