November 1, 2009 - 3:23am
protein % question
Hello all, I'm new here so please forgive me if this one has been discussed. My question is, how much of a difference is there between very close % points? In other words, how radical is the difference between, say, 11% and 11.5%? Does it really matter if a flour is rated as 11.5% or 11.7%? That's not much at all, is it? It's not as radical as 9% to 12%. So as I learn about flours does it matter when I start seeing one at 11.5 and another at 11.7? All else being equal i.e., hard, red, winter, and as long as I'm happy with the 11% range, should I bother about a 2% difference?
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Average beer is 5%, say. A stronger one is 6%. The difference is 1/5 x 100 = 20% stronger, NOT 1%.
Similarly, 10% 'protein' cake flour (AP flour) vs 13% bread flour means 3/10 x 100 = 30% "stronger".
It's also important to remember that most of those figures are actually estimates, not guaranteed measurements, so don't worry too much about the decimal points.
Cheers,
That helps. Thanks