Question

Germinating barley seeds are employed in the preparation of?
A) Cheese
B) Wine
C) Beer
D) Lactic acid

Answer 1

Hint: Several traditional drinks and foods are made by fermentation by the microbes. For example, toddy- A traditional drink in some parts of southern India is made by fermenting sap from palms.

Complete step-by-step answer:
In industry, microbes are used to synthesise several products valuable to human beings. Beverages and antibiotics are some examples. Fermentors are very large vessels used to grow microbes for production on an industrial scale.
For the production of drinks, the same yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used for bread making, and commonly called brewer’s yeast is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices, to produce ethanol.
Barley is allowed to germinate(sprout) to a point that is then dried and this is called malted barley. The germination process helps in the conversion of starch (seed’s stored energy) into simple sugars that are used in its initial growing stage. The conversion is mediated by diastase enzymes that the seed produces during this process. The fermentable sugars, soluble starch, and diastase enzymes are used for beer brewing.

Therefore the correct answer is option C.

Note: Microbes chiefly yeasts have been used from the very old times for manufacturing of beverages like wine, beer, whisky, brandy, or rum. Based on the type of raw matter used for fermentation and type of distilling or processing (with or without distillation) distinct alcoholic drinks are acquired. Wine and beer are produced without distilling. Whereas whisky, brandy, and rum are manufactured by distillation of fermented broth.