With multi-enzyme saccharification blends, distillers can maximize their ethanol yields. Glucoamylase breaks down short-chain dextrins. Cellulase releases more bound starch through cell-wall degradation. Acid-stable amylase continues to hydrolyze starch during fermentation. Trehalase side activity breaks down trehalose.

Making beverage alcohol involves converting starch into fermentable sugars. Yeast then transforms these sugars into alcohol. 

In liquefaction, distillers break starch down into soluble short-chain dextrins. After leaving the cooking line, the heat exchangers cool the mash down. Then distillers add a blend of glucoamylase, acid amylase and cellulase, with trehalase side activity. 

This blend leaves no part of the grain unexplored. Glucoamylase hydrolyzes (1,4)- and (1,6)-alpha-D-glucosidic linkages at the non-reducing ends of polysaccharides. That breaks the short-chain dextrins produced in liquefaction down into glucose and maltose. After saccharification, yeast converts these into alcohol during the fermentation process.

An acid-stable alpha-amylase continues to work during fermentation. It hydrolyzes partially converted starch and large oligosaccharides for maximum yield. It can also improve filtration and centrifugation rates by eliminating partially converted starch. 

Starch in cell walls is inaccessible to glucoamylase. Cellulases hydrolyze the long-chain cellulose molecules in cell walls into simple sugars. Glucoamylase can then break these down into glucose and maltose.

During simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), yeast produces trehalose. This is a disaccharide composed of two glucose units bound together through a unique α-1,1 bond. Trehalose contributes more than 50% of the DP2 peak following the SSF process*. Glucoamylase can’t hydrolyze the bond in trehalose. Glucoamylase-cellulase saccharification blends with Trehalase side-activity degrade trehalose into two glucose monomers. That reduces residual sugars in saccharification and boosts yields. 

*analyzed by standard HPLC method at the end of fermentation.