Pito is an alcoholic beverage obtained through a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) fermentation of wort extracted from sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) malt. The malting conditions of sorghum are thought to influence the quality characteristics of the malt, and subsequently the quality of the pito obtained from it. Studies were carried out on a local sorghum cultivar grown in Ghana -chireh, to optimize the conditions for malting conditions for pito production in Ghana. A 3 3 full factorial experimental design was replicated with steeping times of 12, 16 and 22 h, germination times of 3, 4 and 5 days, and malt drying temperatures of 30, 40 and 50°C as factors. Diastatic power, extract yield, attenuation limit and free amino nitrogen were determined. Germination duration significantly affected diastatic power and free amino nitrogen (p < 0.001). Extract yield was also significantly influenced by germination duration (p = 0.001). The germination time, steeping time and drying temperature had no significant effect on the attenuation limit. The optimal conditions for malting this specific cultivar grown in Ghana to obtain critical malt quality indices are 12.0-12.5 h steeping, 5 days of germination at 30°C and drying at 40°C. Free amino nitrogen levels in all treatments were higher than the minimum requirement for good yeast nutrition and fermentation.

The determination of the surface tension of some liquids or solutions has been carried out using a tensiometer. The determination of the contact angle between the liquids and a planar surface has also been carried out using photography. Polar and dispersive contributions of the surface tension were obtained by calculation while the polarities of the liquids and solutions were determined applying Wu equations. This method gave the different results for solutions prepared from macromolecular compounds (acroleineethanolamine macromolecular solution 1 g/l, acroleine-diethanolamine macromolecular solution 1 g/l, acroleine-urea macromolecular solution 0.7 g/l and polyglutaraldehyde-ethanolamine macromolecular solution 1 g/) synthesized by Malonda from glutaraldehyde and acroleine. The dispersive and polar contributions of the surface tension were computed and used to calculate the surface tensions of solutions by the simple measurement of the contact angle. The results have revealed that the polarities were weak: 2% for all solutions except for the acroleine-diethanolamine macromolecular whose polarity was 6%. The surface tensions for all solutions varied from 67 to 59 dynes/cm.