Adding alcohol enzyme can help in alcohol production
Modern science has made great strides in alcohol production and in addition to adding yeast to ferment the mixture, adding alcohol enzyme can also help in alcohol production. These enzymes can lower production costs as well as lower the cost of raw materials used in the production of various alcoholic beverages.
Ethanol or alcohol that is suitable for consumption requires several processes so as to convert the main ingredients into alcoholic drinks with varying strengths. Alcohols and spirits such as beer, whiskey, vodka, wine, etc also require specialized yeasts such as brewers yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, vodka yeast, wine yeast or any other matching brewing yeast to ensure proper alcohol or ethanol fermentation. For quick alcohol production manufacturers and homebrewers can also use turbo yeast or instant yeast that can ferment in a wider range of temperatures.
Some spirits such as vodka and whiskey also need to pass through a distillation process before they get converted into the final product with high alcohol strength or proof levels. While malt was the choice of most alcohol producers in the past, enzymes such as Alpha Amylases have now taken over to convert starches present in the mixture of water and grains into fermented alcohol. Compared to malt, very small quantities of enzymes are required to complete the same process, and this has reduced the costs of alcohol production to a large extent.
An alcohol enzyme can convert starch into alcohol in two processes, namely liquefaction, followed by saccharifaction. During liquefaction the starch in the mixture is converted into gelatin base so as to break down the starch into smaller molecules. Once this process is completed then the second process of saccharifaction process that uses a glucoamylase enzyme further breaks down the starch into glucose. Various enzymes also help in yeast growth and hasten the fermentation process, which results in huge savings for alcohol manufacturers.
There are other types of enzymes that also perform specific duties in the fermentation and distillation processes, which in turn lower production costs as well as production time. Many manufacturers are now shifting towards replacing malt with such enzymes during alcohol production to lower their costs. On the other hand, human bodies too contain several enzymes that get into action once alcohol enters the body.
These enzymes help in breaking down the alcohol so as to protect the body from any toxic elements that might still be present in the alcoholic drink. However, the effects of these enzymes differ from person to person and thus different people can handle different quantities of alcohol in their system. In humans these enzymes are present in the form of alcohol dehydrogenases or ADH and the job of these enzymes is to allow safe consumption of alcohol but only up to a certain limit.
The production of alcohol involves brewing and even distilling the mixture of water with various ingredients. However, modern distilling methods have now started to replace the traditional malt with suitable enzymes that speed up the process as well as lower the quantity required to manufacture the same amount of alcohol. Adding alcohol enzyme can surely help in alcohol production and several producers including smaller ones are now adding enzymes to lower their production costs.