Corn Grits Bourbon Procedure

[Bourbon_Greg]

We are running a bourbon using 25lbs of corn grits plus barley & wheat (no sugar). We are using a brew in bag method right now and are finding it a PITA! We bring ~10 gallons of water to boil, turn off fire, add grits and stir, add HTL, rest 90 mins, add backset and water to get to 150F, add GL, rest 75 mins, Raise bag on a hoist, and sparge with fresh hot water and squeeze bag till we are exhausted!

I am thinking there must be easier way. I see many posts where people are fermenting on grain and straining before distill. My question is what are you doing this in? I have a 25 gallon stainless pot we cook in. How would we transfer the wort with all the grain from the pot to the fermenter (30 gallon blue barrel)? It would be too heavy to pickup and pour it in. I thought about pouring the hot water directly in the blue barrel and making the mash there but the barrel is only rated to 140F. I guess we could move it via a bucket at a time procedure, but seems it would be messy and slow.

I went through many posts and did not see anything relevant. If there is a relevant post anyone knows of I would appreciate a link.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Oldvine Zin]

I do large batches of cornmeal directly into my SS ferment tank, I used to use a large Brut trashcan before I got the tank. I pretty much follow the techniques in this thread Also pumps are a good tool to have.

Good luck
OVZ

[greggn]

This is what I use ...

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item. ... &catid=685

[Holytoledo]

The last few batches I used a brute garbage can and used the hot water heater. The knob on the heater takes it up to 140, but can be overridden. The psv is set at 210. I got it up to 195 and used a hose off of the drain. Note I do this when noone is home and make sure it is turned back down and the system is flushed back to normal temp. I do have an expansion tank and a valve on the hotwater that can be turned off. I ferment on grain and then pump down the mash to the top of the grain bed. When the run is done I then dump the backset back into the brute to start the next batch on it way to a sour mash.

[8Ball]

I am thinking there must be easier way. I see many posts where people are fermenting on grain and straining before distill. My question is what are you doing this in? I have a 25 gallon stainless pot we cook in. How would we transfer the wort with all the grain from the pot to the fermenter (30 gallon blue barrel)?

I have done a similar bourbon using coarse grits, steam rolled barley, and malts. I use a 10 gallon pot to cook in and a 10 gallon Coleman drink cooler to ferment in. The mash quantity is 8 gallons. I use a 1/2 gallon plastic drink pitcher to dip from the pot to the fermenter. I toss in a handful of oyster shells and pitch yeast. When it is done, I dip and squeeze through a paint strainer bag using a mop bucket. Then into the boiler it goes, yeast and all. No problem ever using propane.

[Supergrump]

Try researching "lauter tun" or "mash/lauter tun" on some home brewers forums, like homebrewtalk.com. Youre asking if theres an easier way to lauter, which is separating the wort (liquid) from the grain. Homebrewers must separate liquid from the grain before boiling so there are many creative ways of doing this for homebrewers.

The thing is, many homebrewers convert to brew in a bag after using more complicated, although arguably more efficient, ways first. Brew in a bag is favored by many because of its ease, and it requires only 1 pot. So there are other ways, but not necessarily better ways.

A quick improvement would be to mount a pulley to your ceiling, or to a frame over the mash pit and suspend the bag when the mash is complete. You can let it drain out at your leisure without having to lift and squeeze. Some brewers dont bother to squeeze the bag because they believe it extracts bitter tannins from the grain. The jury is out on that.

[cayars]

I now lauter and ferment off grain. I find I like the taste much better and it's a much easier setup for me to use.
I use Home Depot 10 gallon drink coolers with a braided SS (center plastic removed) hose in the bottom (vs a false bottom). Just replace the spigot with a 1/2" ball valve.

These hold heat great and making using quite easy.

So after the brew is done I put a bucket under the ball valve opening (cooler sites up higher) and open it filling a bucket or close to it. Once the cooler is drained I add another 3 to 5 gallons of 150 F water to cover the grains, mix and then drain this.

Roughly speaking if your first fluid comes out at 7% then you'll get about 3 to 4% on the first sparge. I take both of these and add to a 44 Gallon Brute trash can which I ferment in.

Then I'll batch sparge again with about 7 gallons more of water. This will come out at about 1% to 3% potential (if fermented). What I do is use this for the next strike water used with the next set of grains. Obviously the next batch will have higher potential since my strike water already had some potential alcohol to start with. I just use my hydrometer to see what the potential is my sparge water is coming off at and use more water until my potential is under 2% or I've got the maximum "water" needed for my next batch of strike water.

Doing it this way pretty much gets everything out of the grains that there is to get. By not fermenting on the grain hulls I don't have as much proteins and don't have nearly as much "puking" with rye whiskeys. You also get rid of much of the taste of the hulls which isn't good.

To me this beats trying to ring out a fermented soggy mess of grains never getting it all completely.

With two of these 10 gallons coolers setups it doesn't take long to fill a 44 gallon brute trash can. I've also used standard 5 gallon buckets as well as the coolers. I wrapped the buckets in old blankets for insulation. Then I just dump the buckets into the coolers and use the coolers to sparge with.

One cooler and a couple of buckets works well for people without big pots to boil water in. A single 5 gallon pot and 1 or 2 other 2 or 3 gallon household pots due the trick for getting the strike water.

Without any grains in the mash tuns you can have far more liquid per mash tun of usable alcohol. It's also quite easy to syphon out leaving just the lees setting on the bottom for a nice clean run. Add the next batch right on top of the lees and it takes right back off again with no additional yeast needed. Another reason I like doing it this way is far less issues with those pesky sour flys.

Carlo

[Durhommer]

This is what I use ...

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item. ... &catid=685

Stiller boy turned me on to those they work great! Super clear beer after filtering

[Kyled93]

Hey guys, so I’m new to this hobby but have been brewing beer for over 11 years now. IMO there are two ways to make a wort “beer before boiling and adding yeast “

1. Make a Mashtun with a false bottom which keeps the grain of the bottom of the vessel. Have a heat source under it while using a pump to recirculate the liquid. This is my system... it allows you more flexibility with temps. Typical if you get the grain temp to high it can kill the enzymes needed to covert the barley to sugar. I aim at a temp of about 148F-156F. Think of this range as thin body (146) to heavy at (158). You get less fermentable’s at 158. I’ve tried to post a picture of my brew stand mash tun here :

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201911 ... 44a7e9.jpg[/IMG]

The middle vessel is the mash tun. I have a burner under it and have a solenoid control the on/off of the burner. All while the pump is constantly running using the grain as a filter bed and to maintain the temperature for 60 mins. The pot to the right is the HLT( hot liquor tank) basically hot water(168) to rinse the grains of the residual sugar. All this being said, you most likely will end up with a SG (specific Gravity) off of the mashtun at about 1.010. Like anything else trying to get the last little bit isn’t worth it.

Option two: Was mentioned above using a 10-15 gallon cooler and a stainless steel mesh or false bottom. These are great set it and forget it systems where you don’t have to run a pump the entire time until you want to clarify the run as the coolers have great heat retention.

Both work and are more or less time and temp driven.

Hope it helps!

[Durhommer]

cayars commented... I use Home Depot 10 gallon drink coolers with a braided SS (center plastic removed) hose in the bottom (vs a false bottom). Just replace the spigot with a 1/2" ball valve.
cayars youre telling me you can use that braided shell as a false bottom/strainer screen you should talk show pics of ypor mashtun im curious about the hose


i found a link it explained waht i needed ill have to tinker with that idea there