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Diastatic Malt Powder

Popthebaker@aol.com
Sun, 14 Aug 2005 18:59:09 EDT
v105.n035.10
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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