On Wed, 18 May 2005 14:00:31 -0500, zxcvbob >
wrote:
>Malted sorghum? I thought that contained lethal amounts of cyanic
>glucosides. The levels of cyanide might be reduced to safe levels during
>fermentation (I don't know, this is the first time I've heard of using
>malted sorghum to make beer), but the original poster is not planning to
>ferment it but instead to make syrup. It could be extremely dangerous.

Through Googling, I don't think this is a problem. I have found
references that during malting, the cyanide-problem areas -- the new
shoots -- are removed. This seems to solve most of the problem. As an
example, per one set of scientists, HCN content is reduced by more
than 90% just by removing the shoots. Fermentation furthermore reduces
it by 70%. Since I don't have access to a bunch of university library
scientific papers or time, I can't look up how much cyanide is reduced
by additional malt kilning, or the one hour boil that you would
normally do during brewing.

Given that the cassava root, a plant that contains a bit more cyanide
ppm when mature, is consumed just fine via simple techniques like
toasting or fermentation, I'd speculate that the levels of cyanide one
is talking about in sorghum beer are so minimal as to actually be a
nutrient.

References:
http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cd...e/T0818E09.htm
and a Google Scholar search on Dada and Dendy.
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