On Food and Cooking

completed by running the wort off the solid
remains of the malt, which are then rinsed
with hot water — “sparged” — to remove
some remaining extractable materials before
being discarded.
Mashing accomplishes several purposes.
Above all, it gelates the starch granules and
allows the barley’s enzymes to break down
long starch molecules into shorter sugar
chains and small fermentable sugars, and
proteins into foam-stabilizing amino-acid
chains and fermentable single amino acids.
And it extracts all these substances, along
with color and flavor substances, from the
grain particles and into the water.
Because the different enzymes work fastest
at different temperatures, the brewer can
adjust the ratio of fermentable sugars to sugar
chains, and amino acids to amino-acid chains,
by varying the temperature and time of
mashing. By this means he controls the beer’s
final body, and the stability of its foam. Fully