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==Process== One of the advantages of all-grain brewing is the ability to use ingredients that can't be used in extract brewing. Specifically, all-grain brewing allows brewers to use starchy grains or adjuncts that would cause haze (and instability) in an extract beer. Because grain-derived enzymes in themash (alpha and beta amylase) degrade starch into simple sugars, starchy adjuncts can be added to an all-grain mash.
In order to degrade starch in a mash, however, the starch needs to be accessible to the starch-degrading amylase enzymes. In most plants, including barley, starch is stored in granules. In these granules, starch has an organized structure. When a starchy food is soaked in cold or luke-warm water, the starch absorbs some of the water, but the granules remain essentially intact. Within a range of temperatures, however, the starch loses its structure and becomes a "net" of starch with lots of water molecules interspersed. This is called the gelation range. Above the gelation range, the starch dissolves into the water. Because the starch-degrading amylase enzymes are water soluble, they can then get to the starch and begin degrading it.