MALT

grain (especially barley) in which enzymes, particularly diastase enzymes, have been developed by allowing it to sprout. It is used in the making of malt beverages, malt-extract, etc.: The grain is first steeped in cisterns, or ‘‘drums,’’ of water for from forty eight to seventy-two hours and then encouraged to germinate—first, in rectangular heaps, or ‘‘couches,’’ sixteen to twenty inches deep, and afterwards spread thin on the growing-floors; finally being kiln-dried and screened to remove the sprouts, ete. The great commercial value of the diastase developed is its high power in the conversion of starch and starchy meal—as corn or rye meal—into soluble dextrins and fermentable sugar (maltose), and intermediate products. The commercial diastase employed in baking and for some other purposes instead of the malted grain itself, is a hard, white, tastele , solid substance obtained by digesting the germinated grain in water and aleohol, then pre ing and filtering.