GF mash - Quinoa diastatic power

Hey all!
This is my first post, but I've done a fair bit of reading on this topic (although not every single post - so forgive me if I've missed something)

Two things I've gathered so far:

1.Malted Quinoa has some conversion potential, but not as much as regular pale malts.

2.An enzyme additive is often added to help the conversion process. This is usually Alpha Amylase powder.

From my understanding, Alpha Amylase requires calcium to work. Quinoa has roughly half the amount of calcium as Barley.
Could we improve the efficiency of our mash by adding calcium in some form? Any thoughts from experienced Quinoa users as to the feasibility of this?

Cheers, JP

All grains have the necessary [everything] to break down their starches; those starches are food the plant stored for its own use and it's evolved the ability to eat its food. Enzymes are tough because you need to make sure you don't denature them somewhere in the process. The necessary calcium and whatever other chemicals should remain, and mashing/kilning/roasting shouldn't destroy those.

The real challenge is producing properly diastatic malt. There's actually a fair bit of very technical information floating around, and if you work at it you can glean some useful information. A lot of it is research into pseudocereal food production and/or alternative brewing in 3rd world countries.

Muench1 is right about all that. Calcium can buffer enzymes but, adding calcium will change the mash ph. You may end up doing more damage than good by adding too much. Check out the water chemistry primer. My water is fairly hard, so I don't have to worry about calcium. It may also be why I have had so much luck with quinoa.

Quinoa has more than enough DP to convert itself. It actually has enough to convert 20% adjuncts. Millet can actually do 40%.

Thanks for the tips!
I've just finished preparing some grains for my first GF porter.
I malted some White Quinoa, and made some light and dark crystal malts from Quinoa too brew day is next Saturday!

It would be cool to see a recipe. I'm always interested to see different styles. Definitely do an update.

Also, how did the crystal turn out? Mine have been a little hit and miss. Less than a pound seems to roast uneven.

I'm still knuckling down on the exact recipe, but I'll post once it's in fermentation
The light Crystal went well, but I still had to keep a pretty close eye on it. Getting it to go darker was a bit trickier, and tended to brown unevenly.