diastic power of grains

Which grains DO NOT have the enzymes to break down the starches? Do all malted grains have this diastic power and flaked grains don't? Thanks for the info.

Flaked grains do not have enzymes, any malted base grain does have enzymes. Specialty grains and any roasted grains have little to no enzymes.

what exactly are "specialty grains" would that be crystal 20 and special b, or honey malt, peat malt, aromatic malt. Is vienna malt considered a specialty malt even though it can be the base grain? Thank you.

Crystal malts (including Special B) and the roasted grains have no enzymes...but they are already converted anyway so that's why you can just steep them. They don't need to be mashed.

Everything below does need to be mashed.

Base malts (Pils, Pale, 2-row, 6-row, etc.) including Vienna and Munich do have enzymes. Vienna and Munich don't have as much as the the 'main' base grains but enough to convert themselves...Vienna has more than Munich. Victory and Biscuit have even less and need 'help' from other malts...especially Biscuit. Adjuncts like Oats/Corn/Rice/Unmalted wheat/Unmalted barley do not have enzymes.

Wheat Malt has enzymes a plenty (like a base malt).

Carapils (Dextrine) has no enzymes.

EDIT: Aromatic malt has enzymes. Not sure about Honey or Peat but I would assume they do have enzymes.

thanks for the help!

SpanishCastleAle said:

Crystal malts (including Special B) and the roasted grains have no enzymes...but they are already converted anyway so that's why you can just steep them. They don't need to be mashed.

Click to expand...

Well yes and no. They do have some converted starches, but not near as many if you would mash them with something that did have enzymes. Steeping crystal grains will probably yield a potential extract of around 1.030-3 and steeping you would expect more along the lines of 1.010-3

You should look at this chart in the wiki it has helped me tremendously over the last year or so.