Does Rye Malt Have Enzymes

Malted barley is so potent with enzymes described as having high diastatic power that it acts as a catalyst inside the mash tun converting any available starch even those from other grains like unmalted corn rye and wheat into the sugars yeast need to produce alcohol.

Does rye malt have enzymes. It sounds like red rye malt used in russia for bread is produced exactly the same way and it is diastatic malt made red by fermenting for a few days at 50 c. Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as malting. Moderately modified malts benefit from a protein rest to break down any remnant large proteins into smaller proteins and amino acids as well as to further release the starches from the endosperm. Rye malt is smaller than barley malt and you will need to tighten the gap on your mill.

Unless you use malt or enzymes the rye flour won t do much. It also develops other enzymes such as proteases that break do. Once dries it is crushed for beer and spirit making with its enzymes intact. Milling rye even though rye malt does not have a husk it does need to be milled before mashing.

It is the very things that we think we know that keep us from learning what we should know. Wheat and rye malt contain enough diastatic enzymes to convert their own starches into fermentable sugars and can theoretically be used for 100 of the mash though in practice they are usually used for 50 or less as the protein content makes for a thick viscous beer and the lack of husks on the grains makes lautering a nightmare as you increase the proportion of wheat rye past 50. A pale rye ale would contain something like 80 pale ale malt. Sadly i don t think you can make a small amount of red rye malt this way because of the thick layer of sprouted grain required about 8 and large area to create spontaneous heating.

Rye adds a fullness or richness to the malt character and imparts a nice spicy zest to a beer. It s not quite as snappy as wheat though. The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air. Rye malt also complements the citrusy hop character and adds silkiness to the body.

Russian red rye malt is non diastatic diastase is an enzyme complex that develops during sprouting of grain. Fully modified malts have already made use of these enzymes and do not benefit from more time spent in the protein rest regime. Without them 4 to 5 is going to be about maximum. Malting grain develops the enzymes required for modifying the grains starches into various types of sugar including monosaccharide glucose disaccharide maltose trisaccharide maltotriose and higher sugars called maltodextrines.