beta glucanase enzymes

[SpiritRun]

Has anybody used beta glucanase enzymes during a glucan rest in order to aid in liquefication and reduce viscosity?

[DrMalt]

Malt has these enzymes in it and it is in sufficient quantity to provide for excess adjunct starch. This would include Rye, Wheat, 2 row, 6 row, Munich, Pilsener and Pale Ale malt. To my knowledge there is no use of Glucanase in unmalted mashes.

[loneswinger]

I've used them sure, a lot of people have. If you have a sufficient amount of malt they aren't necessary but are useful for some mashes. Is that all you wanted to know?

-Loneswinger

[SpiritRun]

I've used them sure, a lot of people have. If you have a sufficient amount of malt they aren't necessary but are useful for some mashes. Is that all you wanted to know?

I'm interesting in knowing how the use of beta glucanase has aided in liquification for those who have done done mashes which employ a glucan rest. How significantly did the addition of the enzyme help as opposed to not using it with something like rye (both malted and unmalted)? What suppliers sell the enzyme? Plenty of homebrew and distilling supply stores sell alpha/beta amylase enzymes but I haven't seen any selling beta glucanase.

[loneswinger]

Never mind, I read it wrong. I was thinking gluco-amylase (a synonym for beta amylase) when I read your post. I am sorry for the mistake.

To answer your actual question: no, I have not used them. I while back I tried to find them for sale and the only thing I found online was a chinese supplier for large scale operations/large quantities.

I have done beta-glucan rests before for unmalted rye mashes and it helps a lot with viscosity. I add a couple pounds of barley malt per 25 lbs of unmalted rye. Rest at about 115 F for 30 minutes. I found that if I skip the beta-glucan rest the resulting wort is very viscous and difficult to separate from the solids. I don't know if the beta-glucanase is in the barley malt or the rye or both, I just know that it works. It still does not sparge as easily as malted barley, but it is at least separable.

I have never used malted rye, but if DrMalt is correct than rye malt contains this enzyme.

If you want to make a 100% unmalted rye spirit with enzymes, and you can not distill on the grain, it is probably worth reading if rye has beta-glucanase. Because without the rest, you will end up getting a bucket of slime. Think oatmeal. It sounds like a mixture of malted and unmalted rye would work. I have no idea what ratio you would need though.

I steam inject to heat the mash, this makes it easy to hit all of the temperature rests without the risk of scorching the grain and without having to add a lot of water. Also, even though I say the rest is only 30 minutes, the mash stays between 105 to 120 F for almost 2 hours due to the slow heating that I do in this range.

Sorry for the original rash post, I hope that this second one is helpful.

-Loneswinger

[DrMalt]

Sorry to correct you loneswinger but gluco amylase, beta amylase and alpha amylase are 3 different enzymes that do 3 different things. The common enzymes sold for mashing unmalted grains are alpha amylase and gluco amylase poor ol' beta isn't usually included because it's just not necessary especially if you are using the gluco amylase because it basically does the same thing and more.

Alpha amylase converts starch to oligosaccarides, (complex sugars or sugars made up of multiple glucose units configured in long and branched chains) Gluco amylase cleans up after alpha breaking the chains into small individual glucose units which are most easily absorbed by yeast cells.

Here is a decent summary of the three and what they do, where they come from etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amylase

[loneswinger]

Thanks Dr. Malt for the correction. I kind of wondered about that but I thought they did the same thing so I thought it was a synonym.

No need to apologize for correcting people (me) when they are wrong. Thanks for the link I will take a read.

-Loneswinger