Diastatic malt powder is essentially powdered form of malt extract
which still contains the enzymes necessary to break down complex
carbohydrates into simple sugars. Barley, or other grain, is soaked
in water and then allowed to germinate. The germination process is
started and at a point where the enzymes have formed but there has
been no conversion of the starch in the grain. It is then dried to
stop the enzyme action and is now referred to as Malt. To make
diastatic malt powder the malted grain is crushed and added to water
to form a thick mixture. The enzymes are then reactivated by the
water and convert the complex starch of the grain into sugars that
can be digested by yeast to make alcohol and carbon dioxide. The
water is removed from the mixture resulting in either thick syrup or
a dry powder. Diastatic malt powder contains the enzymes necessary
for starch conversion. A different process yields a non-diastatic
malt powder that does not contain the enzymes. The conversion process
for grain, usually barley, takes around two hours, plus or minus
depending upon temperature. The usual temperature for mashing is
between about 145 and 155 degrees F. Enzyme action begins at the time
the crushed grain is hydrated. In beer making the enzymes are
denatured when the wort, or liquid drained from the mash, is boiled.
In baking the object is not to convert the starch to sugars. The
enzymes will break down a very small portion of the starch in the
flour. The sugar of the malt powder provides the yeast a little bit
of readily metabolized food during the early part of the first
fermentation. The quantity of malt powder used is generally quite
small, only a few percentage of the weight of the flour.
It was the manufacture of malt syrup and powder that enabled a few
beer breweries to remain in business during Prohibition.
Unfortunately many others did not survive and the United States lost
many great local beers.
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