Malting
a process by which barley wheat, rye, or any other description of grain is converted into malt .
MALTOSE. Malt sugar, C12H22O11. A sugar formed from starch by the enzyme diastase. Dextrin is first produced and this is further acted upon by diastase to form maltose. Pure maltose crystallizes from water in the form of crystalline flakes. The commercial product, however, occurs, mixed with more or less dextrin, as a thick syrup, varying in color from dark reddish brown to pale straw yellow. It is prepared from barley, by soaking the grain in water and then allowing it to sprout by keeping it in a moist atmosphere at a carefully regulated temperature. During this process, the enzyme diastase is formed in the grain. When the grain has sprouted sufficiently, which occurs in from nine to twenty-one days, it is dried in a kiln, the higher the temperature of drying the darker being the malt produced.
The malt is then stirred with water and kept at 60-65° C. in order to bring about diastatic fermentation, by which process the starch in the grain is converted into dextrin and maltose. = C12H22O11 + C6H10O5 C6H10O5 + H2O Water Maltose Dextrin Starch The extract thus produced is clarified and decolorized by treatment with carbons and by other methods, and is then evaporated to the consistency of a thick syrup. It is used in the manufacture of candy and soft drinks, and to an increasing extent as a table syrup, and for domestic purposes as a substitute for cane sugar.