Processed

Malt Amylase

A tier

Malt amylase is not a single enzyme but the living kit inside diastatic malt—alpha and beta amylases, plus helpers—sold as flour, syrup, or extract so bakers and brewers can borrow a germinated grain's starch attack. In bread a little diastatic malt feeds yeast and colours the crust; in the tun it is the historical way to convert a mash without a drum of fungal powder. Activity is declared in degrees Lintner or similar, and it dies if you scald the malt. Non-diastatic malt extract is flavour only—do not confuse the two. A good diastatic malt smells like a clean maltings, not like damp grain. Overdose in dough gives a sticky, over-fermented loaf with a too-red crust.