Miller Brewing Company

Robert J Mizerak

Etzer Chicoye

William F Line

Vinod K Chaudhary

Geoffrey H Bertkau

A sugar syrup is prepared by saccharifying a liquefied starch hydrolyzate at a pH of about 4 to about 5.5 and a temperature above 55.degree. C. with a heat stable, aciduric, pullulanase obtained from rice and an .alpha.-1,4 carbohydrase. The pullulanase employed is substantially free of maltase and transglucosidase activity. In one embodiment, a dextrose syrup is prepared by saccharifying a thinned starch hydrolyzate with glucoamylase and the rice pullulanase. Maltose syrup is prepared using the rice pullulanase and a maltogenic enzyme.

Production of dextrose and maltose syrups using an enzyme derived from

An aqueous extract containing .alpha.-1,6 and .alpha.-1,4 carbohydrases obtained from diastatic malt is treated with an adsorbent to remove yeast lethal factors and can be used to produce a superattenuated low calorie beer. The enzyme-containing extract preferably is introduced into a pitched aerated wort during fermentation. Crude aqueous extracts of diastatic malt cannot be used because they contain factors lethal to yeast which adversely affects the yeast viability throughout the fermentation.

Preparation of low calorie beer with malt extract free of yeast lethal

Low calorie beer is prepared by introducing into the brewing process a debranching enzyme (pullulanase) obtained from rice, a traditional brewing material. The debranching enzyme reduces the real extract of the beer by cleaving alpha 1,6 linkages of unfermentable limit dextrins to form alpha 1,4 dextrins which can be converted by alpha 1,4 carbohydrases to sugars that can be fermented by brewer's yeast. The enzyme may be introduced into the brewing process by adding rice or the enzyme extracted from rice to the mash or to the wort before or during fermentation. The debranching enzyme may be obtained from polished dry milled rice by extraction with an aqueous buffer solution. When malted rice is used as the enzyme source a particularly useful mixture of the debranching enzyme and alpha 1,4 carbohydrases is obtained.

Method of preparing a low calorie beer

A debranching enzyme (pullulanese) useful in the preparation of a low calorie beer may be obtained from rice by extraction of the rice with an aqueous buffer system having a pH of about 6. A preferred buffer system is 0.1 M potassium phosphate-0.2 M-sodium chloride. Extraction is preferably carried out at a temperature of about 50.degree. C. for about 3 hours. When malted rice is used as the enzyme source a particularly useful mixture of the debranching enzyme and alpha 1,4 carbohydrases is obtained.

Growing community of inventors

Waukesha, WI, United States of America

Robert J Mizerak