Abstract: Disclosed herein is one or more carbonated beverages comprising a saponin, and more particularly a saponin derived from the quillaja plant, and one or more methods of using reduced levels of carbon dioxide to make said carbonated beverage. Such beverages contain comparatively low levels of quillaja saponin for example illustrative embodiments include 0.1 to 40 ppm saponin.

Abstract: A method of germinating cereal grains includes: steeping cereal grains in water to obtain steeped cereal grains having average moisture content of 36 wt% to 55 wt%; adding a steviol glycoside to the steeped cereal grains to form a mixture; germinating the mixture to form a germinated mixture; and drying the germinated mixture sufficiently to result in a malt product.

Abstract: This invention provides methods to reduce fermentation time of the cereal based fermented beverages such as beer, increasing the cellar output as well as enhancing yeast nutrition and beer foam quality. An enzymatically hydrolyzed vegetable protein which supplies a balanced combination of foam enhancing proteins and free amino acids of high nutritional value for yeast is added to the materials to be fermented.