Distilling Rye Mash Question

[Steep-n-Rocky]

I am having some trouble with distilling a predominantly rye mash. My recipe used 11 gallons of water, 18 lb rye, 3 lb corn malt, and 4 lb 6 row barley malt. It seems to mash and ferment fine but is almost "gooey" and is easy to burn in the still. In fact the first run burned and my run tonight almost did. Should I modify the recipe and use more water (or less grain)? My stripping run this evening was saved by diluting the mash with 50% water and then running. The only problem with the dilution is that it will take me 2x as many stripping runs to get to a spirits run. How do you distill rye mash?

[Dnderhead]

Id suggest to read up some on AG beer mashing. you need to do the rests,,that is "hold"at 95-113F.(35-54c)
that is glucanase rest and brakes down "gums",,then at 131-150 (54-66c)is beta ,and at 154-160f(54-71c) is alpha the first rest is most important when doing wheat/rye /oats.the more of these grains you use the longer the "rest" needs to be.its usually 1/2 hour it does not hurt to do longer say 1 hour if you use a lot of these grains..

[Steep-n-Rocky]

I started by bringing the temp up to approx. 160 and then added the rye and cooked at approx. 145 for 90 minutes. Then I raised to approx. 170 before letting the temp fall back into the 150 range where I added the malted corn and barley. I then held the 148-150 for another 90 minutes. I wil try the rests you suggest. Question, I am totaling 2.5 lb per gallon of water. Is that too high? I read one string where the author suggested less than that. This finished consistency was smooth but was very slow to filter through a pillow case.

[rtalbigr]

Do you know what the diastic power of your 6 row is? Even if it is 180 L, 4 lbs isn't quite enough, that's why your mash was gooey, not enough enzymes for a good conversion. With all grain mashes after a good saccrification, you should have your grain suspended in liquid (watery) and they should seperate easily. If you give it a little time the grains will settle a lot and you'll have a good amount of liquid on top. Generally with a 11lb/5.5gal mash, after settling I can get 2 gal of liquid before I get to the grains. A mash of predominately corn is the only AG that won't settle out very good. Also, a paint strainer bag make seperation easy, much more so than a pillow case.

Big R

[Dnderhead]

and what was the rye,,flaked? or rye grain

[Steep-n-Rocky]

I'm not sure what the Linter power of the 6-row is but I assumed it would be at a minimum 150 L. So with 18 lbs of ground rye, I calculated that I would need at a minimum 30L per lb or 540 L total. This came out to 3.6 lb of barley which I rounded to 4 lb. The corn I had was malted so I did not include it in the barley calculation. Could the 6-row be lower than 150 L? I did not do an Iodine test but perhaps that is another good step to take.

[Tater]

I would of went with 2lbs grain per gallon max and usually go a tad under that.Like rtalbigr said a paint strainer bag make separation easier.I also let grain temp drop on its own taking some out to make my yeast starter with for adding back to mash next day.

[Steep-n-Rocky]

I appreciate the advice. I strained the mash with window screening to get the grains out but the resulting liquid was very viscous. I thought that the 50 strained mash / 50% water did not burn in the still but learned today that yes even that scorched. Sounds like I will back down to max 2lb per gallon and use the stepped mash rests. Is the barley calc off?

[Dnderhead]

also it will help if PH is 4.5-5.5..keep the mash warm when straining.

[rtalbigr]

In your diastic power calc ya need to include the entire grain bill, not just the unmalted grains. I figure you need a total of 750. Your malted grains have the enzymes but they need to use them convert their own starches as well as the starches of the unmalted grains. Also did you add any gypsum? The calcium helps the enzymes, for your bill I would have used 4 teaspoons.

Big R

[Steep-n-Rocky]

Thanks Big R. How does this look? I am limited by my pot to approx. ten gallons of water so I will use a total of 20 lbs grain (600L). The grain bill will be 14 lb milled rye (70%), 4 lb malted 6-row (20%), and 2 lb malted corn (10 %). Mashing will use the specified rests. Would this recipe need racking assuming all goes well or could this be fermented on the grain and screened for the still?

[Tater]

I ferment on grain then strain .