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A buddy of mine gave me some alpha and gluco enzymes they use at his job in the ethanol plant. They are both in liquid form. Has anyone had any experience with these? I was wondering about how much to use with a certain amount of corn and water. I don't know if the alpha is heat sensitive or not. My buddy that got them for me didn't know, as he works unloading the corn. In the past I always used malted barley for enzymes, but thought these may speed up the process some. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Yes the enzimes are heat sensitive. Not sure about liquid version, dry alpha is pitched under 150*f, gluco around 120*.

i've seen the liquid for sale on one of the internet sites, i think powder has a better shelf life i think? free enzymes are cool

My guess is that if they come from a plant the alpha's are thermo stable up to about damn near boiling... this is to cut costs.

On the gluco's, one needs to drop the pH to below 4.5 for them to work at all and lower the temps.

Oh yeah, and they need to be refrigerated at all times for maximum potency.

I'd love to have some.

Think you could hook me up?

Hear we go again---------- it got to be this temp this ph" NUTS" most work at other temps and ph just not as good or as fast.
I know I'm fu#@ up at this time but enzymes are made to work at body temps. yes they work faster above temps and at different ph
but does not last as long. do you want a long slow conversion , or a fast unpredictable conversion? if treated right enzyme does not deteorate or is consumed
I see it on hear again and again

Please understand that industrial enzymes are not the same enzymes that are naturally found in malted grain. Industrial enzymes are derived from specially bred bacteria and fungii then concentrated. While they may all do the same job, they vary significantly in chemical structure and performance.

It has been my personal first hand experience that the gluco amylase enzyme that MileHi sells will not work at all on the mash if the pH is above 5.

And yes, enzymes will de-nature depending on how they are used and stored. The reason for using high temps is that enzymes function exponentially faster with increasing temps up to a certain point while the de-naturing rate does not. IIRC, for every 10ºF rise in temp an enzyme will work 3x faster.

Dnderhead wrote:Hear we go again---------- it got to be this temp this ph" NUTS" most work at other temps and ph just not as good or as fast.
I know I'm fu#@ up at this time but enzymes are made to work at body temps. yes they work faster above temps and at different ph
but does not last as long. do you want a long slow conversion , or a fast unpredictable conversion? if treated right enzyme does not deteorate or is consumed
I see it on hear again and again

Industrial Enzymes are laboratory designed to work at their peak at certain temps and certain ph's. They are supplied with performance graphs of each of these parameters in their spec sheets. As DD says they need to be stored at low temps to prolong shelf life.
They are supplied as a liquid to make them safer to work with, the biggest risk they expose to our health is that of inhalation. Liquid enzymes greatly reduce this risk in an industrial enviroment.

After some more reading I've found that the alpha will work at nearly boiling as a liquifier and the gluco ideal temp is between 120f and 140f. My pal at the plant says they don't keep these liquid enzymes refrigerated, but maybe they go through them quick enough that they dont have to. He gave me these about 6 months ago and they haven't been kept refrigerated. I hope they are still good. I have about 24oz. of each. I'm hoping to get some time soon to do some experimenting with them. If they don't work, I'll add sugar to the batch to get my O.G. up and have him try to get me some more for another batch. I think he has to get them on the sly, so hopefully he'll be able to get me some more.