<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Here's a correction on the second item of yesterday's post on this subject: From: [log in to unmask] (Jeremy Ballard Bergsman) Newsgroups: sci.bio.food-science Subject: Re: Is barley amylase used in liquor production? Date: 7 Jun 1995 10:08:08 -0700 I <[log in to unmask]> miswrote: >>malt, I don't know. I don't know if the products of the "starch-splitters" >>are the same either. As for malt, alpha amylase produces maltose, >>whereas beta amylase produces dextrine, a more complex and non-fermentable >>sugar. > >I believe you have alpha and beta reversed here. Also it is not so >much that alpha amylase produces dextrines than that it cleaves >alpha 1-6 glycosidic linkages in the middle of starch chains, as >opposed to beta amylase which cleaves them specifically two from the >end of the chain (maltose is 2 glucoses). Alpha amylase cuts the main chain links, which I mistakenly described as alpha 1-6. They are in fact alpha 1-4. The former are the branching type of linkage in starch. Whew! Glad I caught that before you guys embarrassed me. Jeremy Bergsman [log in to unmask]