Two local varieties, a white type and a red type, of Sorghum vulgare cultivated in Ghana were malted, using a micro‐malting method, and their malt characteristics studied and compared to that of a commercial barley malt. The optimal germination time, at 30°C, to produce a good malt of high diastatic power and extract from local varieties of these varieties was 4‐5 days. The local varieties were also found to have high diastatic activities of between 55 and 68% of the commercial barley malt. Hot‐water extracts of the well malted sorghum varieties were also found to have higher and sustainable amounts of free amino nitrogen than the commercial malt. The hot‐water extracts of sorghum malts were lower than the commercial barley malt, yielding about 66‐77% of the barley malt, but contained a higher glucose to malt ratio. In terms of varietal superiority, the white sorghum yielded higher malt extracts than the red type.
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Demuyakor et al. (1992) studied this question.