Thomas Fawcett Malts - diastatic power

[calumscott]

Seeing as I'm going to be brewing all AG beers this year, I figure getting my ingredients sorted in beersmith is a good idea.

Am I right in thinking that the "Index of Modification" column in this http://www.fawcett-maltsters.co.uk/specif.htm is actually diastatic power in *Lintner? 38-42 seems about right to me...?

 

[asd]

HI,

it looks as if that is about nitrogen content

"The Kolbach index is the relation of the soluble protein percentage on the total nitrogen percentage. The Kolbach index permits to encode the chemical disintegration of the malt.
The scale of values is between 29 and 45%:
- > 45 excessive disintegration and it can cause disturbances in the beer
- > 41 very good disintegration
- between 35 and 41 good disintegration
- < 35 insufficient disintegration "

The Lintner range is usually in three figures, and IS about the diastatic conversion power - so with a high Lintner you could convert a bigger proportion of starchy adjuncts. I think 6-row American barley has a higher Lintner, hence the N Americans can add lots of rice, etc, which is cheaper than malt if the broken brewers rice is used- and produce things like Bud - which is not really a good argument for the production of highly diastatic malts! It's more about economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_Lintner

Murphys have some good info too:-

http://www.murphyandson.co.uk/BrewingAr ... uation.htm

Simon.

 

[calumscott]

Ah, thanks for that! :thumb:

I saw Kolbach and assumed that was to do with diastatic power as there is a Kolbach-something unit for that...

 

[zgoda]

Windish-Kolbach, WK for short. This is often used by continental maltsters.

 

[asd]

Ahhh...


If you look at the Wikipedia article I linked from, it says (near the bottom):

In Europe, diastatic activity is often stated in Windisch–Kolbach units (°WK). These are related approximately to °Lintner by:

And then there is a big equation which will not cut and paste.

So "Kolbach" appears to be used in two malt related measurements.

Asd