During the tour at BeerCraftery brewing, a tour participant asks an important question.
Participant: Do you make beer from malt or from barley?
Kevin: Good question! The answer is: yes!
Kevin: During malting, barley grains are soaked in water. This looks like spring weather to the grains.
Grains: Wake up!
Just 5 more minutes...
Already?
Kevin: The grains sprout, and a new plant could be born. Inside the grain, enzymes are developed.
Grains: What do you think about my rootlet?
Kevin: Then the process is stopped and the grains, now malt, are dried.
Grains: I'm so hot!
Let's take a break...
Siesta!
Participant: What? You just make the grain wet and then it turns into beer? Are you kidding me?
Kevin: Ok, you got me. We actually use these tiny invisible alpha and beta amylases, EC 3.2.1.1 and EC 3.2.1.2 respectively, for starch hydrolysis to split polysaccharides.
Participant: I knew there would be a lot of chemistry involved.
Kevin: Yes. It doesn't work without. And without atoms and genetics neither. That's life.
https://beercomics.com/comics/barley-or-malt.html 