What exactly is malt and why does it have a unique taste?
In: 439
Grains like wheat, barley, and rye have a lot of starch, but not sugar. The grains themselves are seeds, of course. The starch is there to be an energy source for the baby plant before it manages to get some leaves into the sunlight. But to be used, it needs to be sugar. As the seed sprouts, it produces a chemical called amylase that acts as an enzyme. Basically, that’s a chemical that has a particular shape that lets it unzip other chemicals into smaller components. The starch breaks down into sugar. But it’s not sucrose(table sugar). It’s not fructose(the sugar in fruit and honey). It’s not glucose, which is what our bodies break other sugars down into for use. It’s maltose. That’s a major part of where the unique taste comes from. It’s a unique sugar molecule. It tastes sweet, but in a somewhat different way than sucrose or fructose. Think about the difference in taste between table sugar and honey.
When making beer, the yeast eats the maltose and lets out alcohol and CO2 as waste.
Latest Answers