# Dry Enzyme



## keef12345 (5/12/07)

Hi guys. 

Is 'dry enzyme' used to produce beers lower in carbohydrates? 

Will you still achieve an average alcohol percentage? (like 4.5 percent)

I know the enzyme removes more of the sugars in the brew so what adjuncts should be used in a low carb brew. I would not like to make a brew and use adjuncts only to loose head size and retention etc.....
:beerbang: 
And when brewing a low carb beer would you guys use a lager or ale set up?? 

When should the enzyme be added to the brew and how should it be prepared. And how much can be added to an average 23 ltre brew. 

Is there any down sides to the dry enzyme? Does the enzyme kill off flavours and should the brew contain more hops to substitute adjunct loss


THANKS GUYS.... 

Heaps of questions I know. :beer:


----------



## lokpikn (5/12/07)

I used it once so i cant say for sure but will give my 2 cent worth.

just put it in when you add the yeast there was nothing special to do to it.

It will consume all the sugar so your alcohol will increase if you use a beer program to work out your beer put it to 100% attenuation. As there is no sugar left this is a low carb beer.

It does not leave you with any mouth feel and a very thin watery beer with NO malt flavour. So next time i will add more flavor and aroma hops.

I done a ale and a larger and i think the larger was heaps better.

This is what i found and are my option only so dont yell at me if im wrong but any info i would be keen to find out. I use it to make beers for my diabetic father in law. He seems to love them so i will keep doing them. Hope it helps



Edit.Splling errores


----------



## wraith (5/12/07)

yes it is Keef, add the enzyme when pitching yeast, just sprinkle on wort.
It will help break down the left over complex sugars into simple sugars so that the yeast can consume them, it will result in a dryer lower carb beer, you will get a lower FG, and the acl% will be slightly higher due to the extra attenuation.

Ive only used it once in my kit days, but the beer will have less body than normal, I would say that its better suited to styles that require a higher level of attentuation, which is common sense really, because that'll be the result.

Wraith


----------



## keef12345 (5/12/07)

wraith said:


> yes it is Keef, add the enzyme when pitching yeast, just sprinkle on wort.
> It will help break down the left over complex sugars into simple sugars so that the yeast can consume them, it will result in a dryer lower carb beer, you will get a lower FG, and the acl% will be slightly higher due to the extra attenuation.
> 
> Ive only used it once in my kit days, but the beer will have less body than normal, I would say that its better suited to styles that require a higher level of attentuation, which is common sense really, because that'll be the result.
> ...



cheers, thanks guys for comments much needed advice


----------



## Screwtop (5/12/07)

lokpikn said:


> It will consume all the sugar so your alcohol will increase if you use a beer program to work out your beer put it to 100% attenuation. As there is no sugar left this is a low carb beer.



It converts complex sugars to simple sugars which will then be available for the yeast to convert to CO2 and Alc. Depending upon the yeast you have chosen it may then ferment the wort lower than would have been the case without using Amylase Enzyme.


lokpikn said:


> It does not leave you with any mouth feel and a very thin watery beer with NO malt flavour. So next time i will add more flavor and aroma hops.



Depending upon the FG final gravity of the beer the body (sweetness) may be low. Can't replace malt flavour with hops, actually if the body is lower the hop bitterness wil be accentuated (natch).



lokpikn said:


> This is what i found and are my option only so dont yell at me if im wrong



Not yellin, you learnin? :lol:


----------



## MHB (5/12/07)

This one always gets me, the last time I looked Ethanol C2H6O was a carbohydrate - you are reducing the mass of carbs in the beer by precisely the mass of the extra CO2 produced when the complex sugars are reduced to fermentable sugars - then fermented by the yeast.

Let's say you got an extra 0.5% alcohol in your 22.5 L brew
Thats 0.1125 litres extra alcohol
Density of alcohol about 0.785 Kg/L
So 0.0883 Kg or 88.3g
Number of moles = Mass (88.3g)/FWT (46.1) = 1.915 Moles

FWT CO2 (44.0)
Mass CO2 released 
Number of moles (1.915) X FWT (44.0) = Mass 84.26g or ~0.084Kg

Let's say your beer had a FG of 1.005
22.5 X 1.005 = 22.6125 Kg's

Total reduction in Carbs
0.084/22.6125 X 100 = 0.37147595356550580431177446102819 %

Isn't Marketing spin a wonderful thing?

MHB


----------



## shawnheiderich (6/12/07)

I ain't no scientist but I will assume that if you convert carbohydrates to alcohol there will be minimum change in the total calories as alcohol contains calories are well, which leaves the question why? Destroy the malt taste for a minimum change in the chaloric content unless you like dry beers which is obvoiusly a personal choice. I hope you get the flavour profile you are after..

Shawn


----------



## Screwtop (6/12/07)

MHB said:


> Isn't Marketing spin a wonderful thing?
> 
> MHB


 
:lol: Anything above 10 to the minus 9 is probably worth advertising, so long as it sounds skinny, sexy or makes you irresistable or rich.


----------



## sathid (6/12/07)

As the others have mentioned, alcohol is a carbohydrate. Low Carb beer is a spin.

Just like Fat-Free lollies (only 99% glucose )


----------



## Leigh (7/12/07)

MHB said:


> Isn't Marketing spin a wonderful thing?
> 
> MHB



While technically you may be correct, the "low carb" tag usually refers to a lower complex carbohydrate content, that are more likely to be stored in the body and metabolised over a period of time rather than alcohol which will not be stored for long and will metabolise relatively quickly...it's the storage that most people would like to avoid  

Shawn, that's why you feel "warm" when you drink alcoholic beverages, as the energy from the alcohol is being released...


----------



## Lobsta (15/1/08)

MHB said:


> This one always gets me, the last time I looked Ethanol C2H6O was a carbohydrate - you are reducing the mass of carbs in the beer by precisely the mass of the extra CO2 produced when the complex sugars are reduced to fermentable sugars - then fermented by the yeast.
> 
> Let's say you got an extra 0.5% alcohol in your 22.5 L brew
> That's 0.1125 litres extra alcohol
> ...



ok, ive seen this mentioned in a couple of threads, so i am going to set the record straight. this is in no way having a go at you MHB, i just dont like science being misrepresented. 

-ethanol (drinking alcohol), which was correctly shown in its imperical formula of C2H6O, but is better represented in its structural formula as C2H5OH (as it shows the functional groups), is an alcohol (surprise surprise), not a carbohydrate. to be a carbohydrate, a molecule needs more than to contain just carbon and hydrogen. carbohydrates must be either a ketone or an aldehyde (a C double bonded to an O... just google it and look at the wikipedia article, it is accurate), with many hydroxyl groups (-OH) bonded to them, usually one on each carbon. and speaking of carbon, a 2 carbon carbohydrate is impossible. absolutely impossible. i could go into it, but it would take me a long time and i would probably lose those without a strong grounding in chemistry. look up carbohydrate on wikipedia also (it is also accurate on this topic), but be warned, it is rather science heavy. 

what MHB may have been getting confused with is calories. alcohol also contains calories, as does pretty much every other thing you can think of. a calorie is the amount of energy required to raise 1 cubed centimeter (1mL) of water by 1 degree celcius (4.184J for those of you playing at home). so the number of calories in a foodstuff is proportional to the amount of energy that your body can utilise from the metabolism of it. so a low carb alcohol of the came alcohol % will have less calories than a regular beer, because the calories from the carbohydrates are removed. in a homebrew setup where using the enzyme will result in more fermentable sugars thus more alcohol, there will still be less calories as the caloric content of alcohol is lower than that of any sugar, simple or complex. i could go further into that, but im not going to as it would be a pointless endeavour and i am hungry. 

any corrections, just reply, i wont be offended

Cheers

Lobsta


----------



## Thirsty Boy (15/1/08)

Besides what both lobster and MHB are saying..

You will notice if you read the label on the bottle of your mega brewed low carb beer, that its not higher in alcohol than standard, and quite often is lower.

So... in a huge leap of intuition, all you have to do is design a beer with a slightly lower alcohol level, then your enzyme will eat up some complex carbs, spit out sugar and you will be back at (somewhere near) the same level of alcohol, with less complex carbs _and_ less calories.

Not spin ... read label

Oh, and if you were planning to do this, I recommend not putting the enzymes in the fermentor. you have no control over the little buggers. Instead, put them in your boil kettle after you lauter (dont do a mash out) and let them play at mash temperatures for 45-60mins. They will work a LOT faster at mash temps than at ferm temps and will get through a goodly proportion of your carbohydrates. Then boil as per normal which will denature the buggers so they can stop doing their evil work.

This way if the beer is too thin, or not thin enough, then you can simply adjust the amount of time you give the enzymes to work.

In a kit, well you jut mix your tin of goo with some water, bring it to 65 and add the enzymes. Then after 45 bring it to the boil. Add say 2/3rds of the sugar you normally would or you will end up with rocket fuel.

Thirsty


----------

