Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.
Malting grains develops the enzymes required for modifying the grain's starches into various types of sugar, including the monosaccharide glucose, the disaccharide maltose, the trisaccharide maltotriose, and higher sugars called maltodextrines. It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast. Depending on when the malting process is stopped one gets a preferred starch enzyme ratio and partly converted starch into fermentable sugars. Malt also contains small amounts of other sugars, such as sucrose and fructose, which are not products of starch modification but were already in the grain. Further conversion to fermentable sugars is achieved during the mashing process.
Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milkshakes, malt vinegar, confections such as Maltesers and Whoppers, flavored drinks such as Horlicks, Ovaltine, and Milo, Cho-chos (chocolate malted ice cream cup), and some baked goods, such as malt loaf, bagels, and rich tea biscuits. Malted grain that has been ground into a coarse meal is known as "sweet meal" Various cereals are malted, though barley is the most common. A high-protein form of malted barley is often a label-listed ingredient in blended flours typically used in the manufacture of yeast breads and other baked goods.[7]
The term "malt" refers to several products of the process: the grains to which this process has been applied, for example malted barley; the sugar, heavy in maltose, derived from such grains, such as the baker's malt used in various cereals; or a product based on malted milk, similar to a malted milkshake (i.e., "malts").