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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
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