Physicochemical Properties and Storability of Non-alcoholic Malt Drinks Prepared from Oat and Barley Malts

Non- alcoholic malt drinks are popular in many countries including Muslim countries. In Iran, these drinks are prepared in a manner similar to beer, but without fermentation and are generally produced using barley malt. In this study, malt drinks with ratios of 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0 of barley to oat malts, the latter obtained under optimum conditions in terms of its enzymes activity, were produced and their physicochemical properties along with their storability were evaluated during six months of storage. The results showed that with increasing the proportion of oat malt in drinks, total solids, ash, acidity, reducing and total sugars increased. The results also indicated that by increasing the oat proportion, bitterness, color, turbidity and foam instability increased, while the amount of foam decreased. It was evident that the oat malt had positive effects on color and bitterness as compared with that of barley, and had more antioxidant compounds.