A question about enzymes

Do enzymes get used up?

Im thinking to make rice beer by boiling the rice then using a small amount of barley for the enzymes. Assumming that barley enzymes can convert rice starch (can they?), will I be able to get away with only a very small amount of barley if I'm willing to have more patience, or do i need an appropriate amount of enzymes from the barley added? (IE: does a certain % of my recipe have to be barley based)

Thanks,

here's my rice beer recipe and progress, i think it's a fail, but it's not finished yet.

Lewyh said:

Do enzymes get used up?

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No, they don't get used up but they do gradually denature.

Lewyh said:

Im thinking to make rice beer by boiling the rice then using a small amount of barley for the enzymes. Assumming that barley enzymes can convert rice starch (can they?), will I be able to get away with only a very small amount of barley if I'm willing to have more patience, or do i need an appropriate amount of enzymes from the barley added? (IE: does a certain % of my recipe have to be barley based)

Click to expand...

If Anheuser Busch can do it you can do it. IOW this is exactly what they do. Cook the rice with a certain percentage of barley in there for the sake of the enzymes. I don't recall what the percentage is (15%?) but note that it is 6 row which is higher in protein and thus enzyme content.

When using adjuncts, like rice, it is important to look at the diastatic power of your malts. You want your mash to have an average power of around 40 Lintner for good conversion of starch. Your recipe uses pilsner (DP of 60) and munich (DP of 40) to convert a large amount of rice (no diastatic power). As mentioned above, if you mash the cooked rice with six row (DP of 160) you will get better starch conversion which means a more fermentable wort. Interestingly, the enzymes will convert the starch in the rice into maltose, just like it would with barley.

-the diastatic powers listed for the malts above may not be 100 percent right, but I think they are close. You get the idea.

Thanks guys, good knowledge. I guess I'll just wait and see how my rice beer turns out...

You need to be careful because if you try to ferment a wort that is 75 or 80% rice you have very little yeast nutrients that are normally provided by the malt so I would suggest buying some yeast nutrients to add to the fermentation

You should perform a diastatic content analysis to assure that you have enough enzymes in the mash.

Mass of Grain 1 times its Lintner rating + Grain 2 times its Lintner rating + Grain 3 times its Lintner rating and so on for the rest of the grains and adjuncts in the mash.

Divide that value above by the total grain mass to find the average Lintner for the mash

The average Lintner should be at least 35.

Recognize that one of those Lintner values in that first equation will be zero to represent the rice.

ooooh magic brew science knowledge sweet.

All sounds good, but how do I find out the Lintner rating

And if the Lintner rating is below 35, does that mean I just have to mash it for longer or will it just not work?