White labs opti-mash alpha amylase

[jmitchell3]

Does anyone have experience with white labs' opti-mash alpha amylase? Just saw it at my lhbs and wondered if it would work well for my gluten free beers. I use millet, buckwheat, and rice for all grain mashes. I've used the BSG amylase product before with decent results after a gelatinizaion rest at 170 before a sacchrification rest (and adding the enzyme) at 156 or so for 2 hours. I tried a step mash from 122 to 180 and had severely reduced efficiency even when adding diatase into the mix, I'm guessing just due to the lack of starch gelatinization.

Cheers!

 

[Legume]

I have never used it, but White Labs describes WLN4300 as a thermaly stable alpha amylase. It should perform similarly to Termamyl, whitch I rely heavilly on.

If you use this with a high temp gelatinization rest, you will probably then want to lower the temperature and do a second rest with an enzyme having B amylase activity (unless you like very thick sweet beer).

You could mash at 175 with the white labs enzyme.
Add ice to lower the temp to a more "normal" mash temp, and add diastase for a second rest.

 

[jmitchell3]

Diatase had the betas in it?

 

[Legume]

Diastase contains both alpha and beta amylase.
EC Kraus recomends a mash between 140 and 150 F.

I brew with grain bills made up of 80 to 90% non malted grain (millet, buckwheat, tapioca starch), along with some specialty rice malts.
my standard process is to mash at 175 for 2 hours with a thermaly stable alpha amylase.
lower the temp to 140(with ice), and add SEBamyl L for a 1 hour mash.

SEBamyl L is hard to find, but I suspect that using Diastase could yield similar results.

 

[jmitchell3]

Diastase contains both alpha and beta amylase.
EC Kraus recomends a mash between 140 and 150 F.

I brew with grain bills made up of 80 to 90% non malted grain (millet, buckwheat, tapioca starch), along with some specialty rice malts.
my standard process is to mash at 175 for 2 hours with a thermaly stable alpha amylase.
lower the temp to 140(with ice), and add SEBamyl L for a 1 hour mash.

SEBamyl L is hard to find, but I suspect that using Diastase could yield similar results.

Cool, thanks for the info.

 

[hipturn]

I've used optimash in two recipes. Increased my efficiency didn't add any adjuncts for first time with GF batch.

 

[jmitchell3]

Diastase contains both alpha and beta amylase.

EC Kraus recomends a mash between 140 and 150 F.



I brew with grain bills made up of 80 to 90% non malted grain (millet, buckwheat, tapioca starch), along with some specialty rice malts.

my standard process is to mash at 175 for 2 hours with a thermaly stable alpha amylase.

lower the temp to 140(with ice), and add SEBamyl L for a 1 hour mash.



SEBamyl L is hard to find, but I suspect that using Diastase could yield similar results.

Legume, so to tie this in to my optimash enzyme thread, optimash from whitelabs is that thermally stable alpha amylase...mash that higher, then add diatase at ec krause' recommended 140-150 temp range for fermentabilty....

Im using malted millet and rice malts with flaked corn or flaked oats as adjuncts (cheaper!). I suppose conversion would be quicker relative to using unmalted grains. My last batch hit 60% with only 20-30 mins at 163 with the optimash, then 2 hours or so at 155 with diatase... Probably oughta reverse that and do 1-1.5 hrs at 170 and optimash then 30-60 mins at 150 with diatase...

 

[jmitchell3]

Looks like white labs says usage temp for optimash should be between 40-75C....75c would be 167F so 170F might be too high for that enzyme...https://www.whitelabs.com/sites/default/files/OPTIMASH Spec Sheet.pdf

 

[Legume]

You are right, looks like it is not quite as stable at high temps as Termamyl.
You might make your first rest at 167 (high end of their recomendation), for 90 or 120 minutes.

 

[hipturn]

I mashed all rice batch starting right at 170 with optimash for <2 hours. Ended at 167. Then EC Kraus amylase for 2 hours at 150. Ended up with 63% efficiency. That's plenty good for me. The resulting beer is very encouraging. Essentially my old Sierra Nevada pale clone but now with all rice View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464876752.645193.jpg