In the brewing vats, a so-called maize schedule of 52°, 63° and 78° is followed, in order to achieve the temperature optimum of the enzymes. The germinating barley grain does not reach high temperatures that way, does it?

Corey Houghton
By Corey Houghton
Questions and Answers

The temperature optimum of all our body enzymes is 37°C because this is our body temperature. When maize in the brewer’s vats, we use enzymes from barley that have been generated during germination in a previous phase. The alpha-amylase would work best at a temperature of 78°C; I find it hard to believe that the temperature in a cotyledon of a naturally germinating barley grain rises to 78°C. Could the maish scheme have another reason?

Asker: Mark, age 35

Answer

In biotechnology (because that’s what brewing beer is after all) we can put enzymes to work more effectively by regulating the temperature of a reaction (such as a mashing process). During the mashing process we want to convert the starches (sugar chains) of the malt into sugars usable for the yeast and for this we “misuse” the enzymes in the seed.

The enzymes work in the seeds at lower temperatures too, but in a slower way that is precisely tuned so that a plant can grow from the seed along with all other processes. The temperatures of the mash schedule help us promote specific processes of the seeds and destroy others to efficiently produce wort, not a plant.

Answered by

Dr Anthony Liekens

Bioinformatics

In the brewing vats, a so-called maize schedule of 52°, 63° and 78° is followed, in order to achieve the temperature optimum of the enzymes. The germinating barley grain does not reach high temperatures that way, does it?

University of Antwerp
Prinsstraat 13 2000 Antwerp
http://www.uantwerpen.be

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