Simple question

[brad]

Hi folks,

I recently bought a sack of cracked corn.

To get the sugars out of the cracked corn what are my best options? I will be boiling it for 2 hours and using a 60/40 ratio of corn/barley for the mash.

- Just mill it like i would barley or leave it has it was packaged?

Making flour out of it would not work for me.

[fizzix]

Mill the corn to expose all of its corny goodness. I run my cracked corn through a blender and make flour out of it.

[brad]

Mill the corn to expose all of its corny goodness. I run my cracked corn through a blender and make flour out of it.

Thanks. This is a trial run so i have no idea how much sugar i will get. I'm just making 3 gallons of wash. We homebrewers call it wort lol

I've been reading its hard to convert corn.. if i don't get a decent OG i will just throw in a pound of sugar and call it a day.

[greggn]

> Making flour out of it would not work for me.


It's not about what works for you ... it's what works for the yeast.

[brad]

> Making flour out of it would not work for me.


It's not about what works for you ... it's what works for the yeast.

No, i decide what to use with the yeast. If milled cracked corn doesn't work i won't use it. And neither will i use flour. I will just make some sour mash. Simple.

[brad]

This is my recipe;

6lbs of milled cracked corn
4lbs of pilsner malt

Boil the corn with an initial volume of 5.25gal of water for 120min

Reduce heat to 65C

Add 4lbs of pils and mash for 2 hours @ 65C

Measure OG

[rgreen2002]

> Making flour out of it would not work for me.


It's not about what works for you ... it's what works for the yeast.

No, i decide what to use with the yeast. If milled cracked corn doesn't work i won't use it. And neither will i use flour. I will just make some sour mash. Simple.

You asked for the best option and greggn gave it to you.

In order for the barley enzymes to break down the starch to sugar, it requires contact in a water environment with the starches. The best way to get water to the starches is to start by making them as small and water soluble as possible. To do that means to make the corn particles as small as possible...hence flour.

If you can't mill the corn to flour, cracked corn will work...but it isn't the "best" option when you express concern over conversion. You will get more starch conversion with flour vs cracked. How much is debatable.

[Swedish Pride]

This is my recipe;

6lbs of milled cracked corn
4lbs of pilsner malt

Boil the corn with an initial volume of 5.25gal of water for 120min

Reduce heat to 65C

Add 4lbs of pils and mash for 2 hours @ 65C

Measure OG

should work well enough, as you are milling the cracked corn you should get better conversion that just cracked out of the bag corn.
I think it's a good medium of effort vs output.