Howzit from South Africa

[papstoker]

Hi all. Been lurking here for a few months. Thanks for all the advice!

I got a 20l home made still for Christmas from my wife and she is already regretting it. Have done about 20 distillations in 4 months and my gas bill is showing it. Started with a few fruit brandies (we call it Mampoer here, and Witblitz if you use grapes) The I tried my had at some UJSSM and was amazed. Corn in SA is plentiful and cheap, so it was my logical departure point. Next I tried a Corn Sorghum simple mash. It smelled horrible during the ferment by the final product was surprisingly good (I did Sorghum as African beers are often made from Sorghum - the beer is called Umqomboti and its not for the faint-hearted as its fermented and drunk on the grain.

Started my first All Grain yesterday. 4 Corn : 1 Corn Malt, but I need some advice

1) While boiling the corn for an hour first, the temperature didnt get to much higher than 80 Deg C - is this normal or is my temp guage wonky?
2) After adding the Corn (we call it Maize(English), or Mielies(Afrikaans), or Umbila(Zulu) malt I kept the temp around 60 deg C, and it got quite runny quickly.
3) After 3 hours at 60-65 deg C I cooled and pitched yeast.
4) I was intrigued about the starch test and bought some Iodine todat. Tested the mash and it seems there is a lot of Starch left, even though the starter SG was 1.06 Any ideas?

I am also infusing a South African Liqueur called Van Der Hum, Its vaguely based on Curacao and I suspect it was brought to these shores by the Dutch East India Company a few hundred years ago, but cant find more info.

Anyway - glad to join forum. Will report in about the Van Der Hum.

[ShineRunner]

First of all, welcome.

Second, I posted on your other thread. This information about your thermometer is interesting though. What is your elevation? If you're boiling water (even with corn in it), it should boil at 100C, with slight variation for elevation. Your thermometer is likely way off, which would also cause your mash temperatures to be way off. This would cause your saccharification to be off.

Get a good thermometer that can be calibrated and go from there.

Good luck

SR

[bitter]

You might get low conversion with that mash due to the temperature being off. if you added the corn malt at too high a temperature your enzymes will be denatured and not convert the starch to ferment-able sugars.

Sounds like your got the bug!

B

[Still Life]

Funny how the wife thinks it's her kitchen.
And yes, dear, that is some stray corn kernels under the coffee maker.

Welcome!

[papstoker]

Thanks guys.

I got a better thermometer. Also suspect Corn Malt is too weak to convert much else. Found some infor that says it should be used 60:40 malt to corn.

[Kruger1801]

Started with a few fruit brandies (we call it Mampoer here, and Witblitz if you use grapes)

Hi Papstoker, I'm also from SA, would love to get a perske Mampoer or similar Mampoer recipe from you if you have one!

[Dantuss]

Welcome!

[papstoker]

Hey Kruger

I havent made perske (peach) mampoer yet myself, but Oom Jan, my mentor, says 8kg of fruit, juiced, 4 kg of sugar, and enough water to make up to 20l. Add 20g Anchor brewers yeast from checkers and wait a bit. Distill. I think a typical mampoer stoker is stingy, so most of the distillation goes into the bottle. If you want something more drinkable redistill and cut the foreshots, heads and tails out. But then its not mampoer anymore, I suspect, but closer to a European Eau de Vie or Schnapps or fruit Vodka. Not to be to self effacing, but I think the omies from Groot Marico spent too many years in the bush.

[Kruger1801]

Hi Papstoker, Baie dankie! Will give it a try. Looking to have some mampoer ready as gifts for this holiday season. Will let you know how it came out.
Cheers!