DavidHawman
Well-Known Member
This question has been bugging me ever since I started reading about mashing. The amylases in the seed become most active at ~150F and denature around ~160F hence brewers aim to mash at temperatures around that. Enzymes, for the most part, function in a narrow band of temperatures. Below which they are sluggish and above which they denature, sometimes irreversibly.
My question is: Why is that temperature for the amylases so high? Most enzymes in the human body are most active at 98.6F since that is the environmental temperature they operate in the most.
So it stands to reason that the seed enzymes would be most active around 60-70F or the temperature of the ground when they germinate but instead they are double that. I doubt you would find a single enzyme in the human body that would be more than barely functional at 180F let alone in its most active state.
Conversely, if an enzyme is most active around 150F then what use is that for the seed if it never reaches anywhere near that temperature while germinating since the enzyme will be incredibly sluggish?
What am I missing?
My question is: Why is that temperature for the amylases so high? Most enzymes in the human body are most active at 98.6F since that is the environmental temperature they operate in the most.
So it stands to reason that the seed enzymes would be most active around 60-70F or the temperature of the ground when they germinate but instead they are double that. I doubt you would find a single enzyme in the human body that would be more than barely functional at 180F let alone in its most active state.
Conversely, if an enzyme is most active around 150F then what use is that for the seed if it never reaches anywhere near that temperature while germinating since the enzyme will be incredibly sluggish?
What am I missing?