Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A superattenuated low calorie beer is prepared from a wort containing as a liquid adjunct a starch-derived syrup which contains dextrins by adding to the wort during fermentation a glucoamylase type debranching enzyme obtained from Schwanniomyces castellii.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A superattenuated low caloric beer is produced by passing fermenting beer through an immobilized glucoamylase reactor having active glucoamylase immobilized on a ceramic monolith. The ceramic monolith has open ended passages ranging from 50 to 3,000 microns in diameter through which the beer passes, and glucoamylase is covalently bonded to internal surfaces of the passages. The glucoamylase is preferably covalently bonded by reacting an aldehydic derivative of glucoamylase with an aminofunctional group on the internal surfaces of the passages to form an aldimine which is reduced to a secondary amine. The reactor can sustain high flow rates of beer containing yeast and other particulate matter without plugging or fouling, and it is operationally stable under fermentation conditions over a long period of time.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A method for treatment of animal blood to simulate human blood for use as a reference standard for automated biological testing instruments wherein the enzyme activities are reduced by base-acid treatment of the serum or plasma from animals and which may include one or more additional treatments, such as decolorizing with an oxidant, removal of inorganic phosphate with an anion exchange resin, reduction of other electrolyte levels by treatment with a mixed bed ion exchange resin, reduction of glucose by treatment with glucose oxidase and the blending of processed animal sera to achieve constituent levels corresponding with human blood serum, including lyophilization of the serum product.