Corn beer

Alcoholic beverages which are not classified as spirits.

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Lawfish
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Corn beer

Post by Lawfish »

Anyone ever make a corn beer? I'm not talking pure corn, like chicha, but more like 50% corn and 50% barley. After getting very efficient at making a corn mash a la pintoshine, I started to think maybe a combination corn/barley beer would be good. I know the big brewers use corn sugar to lighten the body of the beer, but that's not really what I'm after. I want to taste the corn, and of course still have a beer that tastes like a beer (though I admit I prefer the lighter-bodied "session" beers).

So, here's my planned recipe:

5 lbs cracked corn prepared using the pinto shine method
5 lbs light malted 2-row
1/2 lb crystal 40
1 oz Cascade hops

Mash the barley at 152 for an hour
Sparge at 170
Mix the barley wort with the corn wort and boil for an hour
3/4 hops at start
1/4 hops at T-15 minutes

Chill wort, transfer to primary and pitch 1 packet of Safale US 05.

Will likely rack to secondary for clearing after primary fermentation is complete.

Thoughts?
Lawfish

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MichiganCornhusker
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Re: Corn beer

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I like the idea. A brewery near me makes a double rice IPA and it's great. Not sure what their grain ratios are.

Would love to hear how this turns out.
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WooTeck
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Re: Corn beer

Post by WooTeck »

a few quesations.
why is it in the boil and not in the mash?
if you use flaked, rolled or poped corn you could just add to the mash, itll allready be gelatenised. raw corn will gelatinize at 143.5° to 165°F so if you put it in your strike water and hold it there for a while the enzymes from the barley will have a feild day when its added.

on the secondary you dont really need to think about this so5 drops fairly well. i only secondary if im adding somthing else to the beer like more sugar, fruit or doing a double dry hop.

*edit have read the recipe again.im unsure what the pinto shine mathod is so ill try find out.is it converting with external enzymes?
ive just done a quick diastatic power calc. im estamating that itll be about 66°L (30-40°L is recomended) so if you just add the gelatenised corn to the mash it should have plenty to convert all that starch to sugar with no need to wast more enzymes.
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Re: Corn beer

Post by ShineRunner »

Agreed. I would use flaked corn for the ease of mashing for a beer. The amount of 2 row would easily convert all the corn.

If you do the cracked corn, I would basically make it the same way as you make an AG distillers beer. Cook the corn with pinto enzymes, let the temp drop to your beer mashing temp (152, or whatever your strike temp is) and then add your barley directly to the corn. Mash for your hour. Add enzymes if you want. Then sparge everything and hope your corn doesn't clog your filter. If it does, you're going to have to find another way to do it.

I think this is why most people ferment on the grain. I know there are some that sparge and ferment corn mashes off the grain, but don't know what kind of manifold they use. I suppose, if it did clog, you could just run it through a mesh bag and squeeze to filter it. You're going to be boiling afterwards so the risk of infection wouldn't be there....

SR
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Re: Corn beer

Post by ShineRunner »

On second thought, you may want to hold off on the sebamyl. Reason being that you're making a beer and want a particular mouthfeel. That's why you mash at a higher temperature for beer than for whiskey mashes; Stouts are mashed higher than Belgians, etc.. If you use a non-selective enzyme, you're going to lose that. It would probably still be ok, but something to consider...

SR
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Lawfish
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Re: Corn beer

Post by Lawfish »

Thanks for the replies all.

There are several reasons I plan to mash separately. First is the clogging issue. I've tried to run corn through my lauter tun before and it goes nowhere. My corn mashing system is idiot-proof. Set it up with the stirrer, hit the temps, add the enzymes and let it be. I use a different system for straining the corn - bucket with a zillion holes and a 3/8" drill with a paint stirrer. I plan to mash the corn while the barley is mashing in my tun. The mouthfeel is the other reason. I want to mash the barley at 152 to get some long-chain non-fermentables. I've always liked the taste of the corn beer I make for whiskey, so I thought I'd see what it adds (if anything) to a beer.

I'll post my results as I go through this process. May ditch the secondary. I normally only do a primary because I keg my beer and what I don't keg, I put in 2 liter bottles, so keeping sediment out of the glass is not an issue. Right now I have a blonde ale in secondary clarifying, but only because I plan to enter it in a competition. Can't have a cloudy sediment-filled beer in competition.
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WooTeck
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Re: Corn beer

Post by WooTeck »

sound like you have the beer sorted. i rarely think about the problems with corn as ive not used it in over 2 years.

keg it, carb it and then bottle it then you know its going to be good. also lets you dial in your carbonation. from what ive heard your best over carbing a tad.
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Re: Corn beer

Post by zach »

I was thinking about making a beer similar to this style and was wondering if you could post your results. I know it's been a few years so any information would be great.
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Re: Corn beer

Post by zapata »

I made a corn beer that was pretty good. I winged it and didn't record the recipe because I just up and decided to do it one day. All feed corn for the base, but a decent bit of crystal malt to add some body, rice hulls so it could be sparged. Hopped the shit out of it with all hallertau, first wort hopped then continuously sprinkled more hallertau in ala 60 min ipa and dry hopped for good measure. It was like a blank canvas of booze and bubbles for showing off hallertau.

It was great, would do again.
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Re: Corn beer

Post by zach »

So I made my first batch of beer in 20 years. Mashing cereal grains was not a skill I had back then. I had an attitude about corn or rice in beer being inferior. Now as a distiller I wanted to try just for fun my TS corn for making beer.

I used the following gain bill for 4 gallon batch.

5 lbs 2 row malt
3 lbs cracked corn
2 lbs rice
1.5 oz cascade hops
Safale US-05 yeast

I added the corn /rice to 2.5 gallons of boiling water in an insulated pot with Sebstar HTL and held for 90 minutes. Then added Sebamyl-GL to this mix at 150 f for 90 minutes.

The malt I mashed in a separate vessel using BIAB at 154 F with about 2.5 gallons.

After some squeezing, I combined the two worts in a brew kettle and boiled for an hour with 1 oz of cascade added at boill. Then 0.5 oz added at 45 minutes later.

I didn't work too hard at removing the liquid from the grains as I had a bourbon mash fermenting on the grain. So I tossed the remaining grain into the active fermenter.

The initial gravity was 1.065 for the mixture. Four days later it was 1.01. I decided to cold crash it outside overnight to stop the yeast. I was afraid it might get too dry.

Two weeks later and it's in a keg and is tasting good. The beer is surprisingly light for 7.2% abv. It's cloudy but is bright yellow in color, and has creamy head. It's not going to last long . I have another larger batch in a fermenter. I guess this would be classified as a cream ale? I might try some crystal malt in the next batch.
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