Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Usge »

Nice job Brutal!
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

S-Cackalacky wrote:Brutal, do you think it would help at the start to heat up a keg (or 2) of water to add to your steaming/fermenting barrel from the git go? Then, charge the steam boiler with a final water charge for keeping the heat up in the steaming barrel. Maybe this would eliminate some of the excessive water gain in the mash that you get by starting with cold water. Sort of a combination steep and steam process. Just a thought.
shadylane wrote:That's what I've been doing.
I use the boiler to heat water to a boil and pour it into the insulated mash barrel with the grains.
Then refill the boiler and wait for it to make steam.
This would in effect reduce the amount of water that is added to the barrel for heating. This isn't really a problem though. I could also just start with less volume in the FERMENTER. Remember this batch is a pilot run, a benchmark to work from going forward. The heat from my 5500w element is still the only heat source so the overall time will not be less. I could do the same thing easier by just starting with 35 gallons of water and then doing this:
shadylane wrote:Just a thought.
Since the mash needs to be more acid and cooled down for the sebamyl
How about having the backset very cold or frozen before adding it.
That way you could kill too birds with one stone.
This is a very good next step I think. I will have more backset after this is done so think about this: Start with 35 gallons of water and 100lbs grain, the total volume will be less and will take less energy to heat to 190 therefore less water will be added in the process. If I start with 85F+ water from using the aquarium heater the volume might be right at 5 gallons added. If I'm aiming for 50 total gallons of water/backset I could add 10 or so gallons of cold/frozen backset after the sebstar 190f step. 10 gallons should surely put me where I want to be pH-wise, and up to the 50 gallon point too. I know the fermenter is pretty full but I don't see it as a bad thing. Just a number to start with and to deal with on a specific batch basis. Several ways to adjust for it.
Reason for edit: wrote boiler when I meant fermenter..
Last edited by Brutal on Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by humbledore »

rockchucker22 wrote: That's exactly what I'm setting up, just got 2 huge bags yesterday and a winch to lift.
You should start a thread rockchucker, would like to see your setup.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

rockchucker22 wrote:
humbledore wrote:
rockchucker22 wrote: That's exactly what I'm setting up, just got 2 huge bags yesterday and a winch to lift.
You should start a thread rockchucker, would like to see your setup.
I might :ebiggrin: it's been a real work in progress, thanks to the great ideas from shady and brutal
x2! I want to see it!
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by shadylane »

Rockchucker, because of you my wife slapped the shit out of me.
I showed her your post and suggested it as lingerie
Brutal, Sorry for the off subject post
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

Lol that picture is hilarious rocky. I think I need one of those!! Not to wear though but you know what I'm sayin'. PM me how much that was if you don't mind.

Lol shady. You dog.

Thought I'd drop a little update here. The 150w aquarium heater is performing just great. Every time I have checked it it is always at 67f on the money. It's really good. The only part I worry about is the bottom. It's right against cold concrete in the garage. I left some extra cord so the heater would sink down some during fermentation, but I know the bottom will not ever be as warm as the top. The top has been unbelievably solid temp wise. I can't say enough about how great this aquarium heater has done. The ferment has been well controlled. It hasn't landed on the ceiling or anywhere else. I look down in the hole and I see grains from the grain cap on it, and it smells really good. If you get a good nose-full of it it will knock you back. I am not ready to screw with sg readings yet but I am very happy that the us-05 ferment is going as smooth as it is.

Full volume of 50 gallons at 7% yields 3.5 gallons of pure 100% alcohol. At 60% that is 5.8 gallons of 120~ proof. Considering how harsh my cuts are going to be I think I'll get 3 gallons to age and probably 1/2-3/4 gallon of white to enjoy. Or keep the extra and start a sugar head on the trub from the all corn for drinking. Good idea but ties up the barrel so I can't start the "bourbon" recipe yet. Oh poor me.. decisions decisions...
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by HDNB »

Brutal wrote:
shadylane wrote:Brutal, I'm predicting a fast and violent fermentation.
Hope you left enough head space in the fermenter.
I didn't. Look forward to pictures of the carnage if you are right.
i just found this and was sweating out this very thing as i read the post, i saw how full that bucket was! i use the same 205L fermenter and have been pitching at 100* to avoid that pukey smell...and ive been getting 12" Krausen on the ferment.

glad you kept those temps under control and didn't have to pull out the mop! that coulda been....carnage!

really nice work on the steamer thread and this too, thanks for the effort putting all the details out there.

thats gonna be a nice nice 3 gallons to have on the shelf!
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

Finally getting around to dealing with that huge barrel of grains and alcohol. Something has come up every weekend and I haven't touched it until now. It was no worse for wear.

First thing I did was to rack off enough clear to fill my electric keg for the first run. I was able to get 17 gallons of clear before the grains started interfering. I filled the boiler with 14 gallons and got busy squeezing. Took me around 2 hours or so to finish. I used my mop bucket and wringer and placed a brew bag in the wringer. Then I'd scoop out a pitcher full and pour it in and work on it. My pitcher is probably a gallon or a gallon and a half.

I figured from my last experience squeezing mash with this method I can recover about 8 gallons from a 9 gallon mash. So I lose a gallon every 9. So on a 50 gallon mash that's 9 about 5 and a half times.. I'm gonna lose 5.5 gallons. My recovery should be 44.5. Let's call it 44. All these numbers are based on the volume of water I added to the mash, not the mash volume with grain in.

So I want to run 22 gallons at a time. I had been letting the primary keg slowly warm up while I was squeezing. I added 7 gallons of of murky mash to a 15.5 keg and hooked it up as a secondary. Now I'm stripping mash TruckinButch style. Hope to run the (now freshly squeezed) other 22 gallons tomorrow.

I'm planning on filling a 5 gallon carboy from each. Then run the 10 gallons of low wines from my primary through my 5 gallon keg thumper starting with about a half gallon of water in it.

I've got to add too, the murky squeezed mash has some good sized solids in it. I tried to pour it through one of those big funnels the sell at the brew store with the screen in it and it clogged almost instantly. No way would I want this in my electric keg in this state.

I'm having fun now. Just thought I'd update y'all.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

Happy stillin' Saturday y'all!

Here's an update. Obviously I didn't run the second strip the next day as planned. Two things stopped me. An incredibly sore lower back, and this: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=55044 ... After the restart of fermentation it's finally ready to run now.

I haven't even touched the boilers since the last strip run. Here's how the fluid levels worked out. Started with 14 gallons in the primary and 7 in the thumper. Ended with 7.5 in the primary, 8 in the thumper, and about 5 in the carboy I collected into. All approximate.

Strip run number 2 is underway and if I have my way I will be doing the finish run either tonight or tomorrow aka "stillin' Sunday." This project has taken up more time than I ever imagined.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by aquavita »

Brutal - This has been an enjoyable read. Thanks for taking the time to post the process.

I do have a question though - and this may be akin to asking about religion or politics... Are you running the "milky" liquids right away, or are you doing a full clear first?

I'm sitting with 30 or so gallons of modified Booners and am working on clearing, but would love to run it so I can get some more fermenting. I've been using 7.5 gallon ferment buckets and am getting about 5 gallons per 6 gallon (measured by water added) ferment. Using bakers yeast, have been going fully dry in under 2 weeks @ a 73 degree setting in my ferment room (basement bathroom).

Thanks.

Aqua.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

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I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's been fun to do.

I forgot to mention what is in the boiler this time. Last time it was 14 gallons of clear in the primary and 7 gallons of murky fresh squeeze in the thumper. This time it's 14 gallons of cleared in the primary and absolutely everything else in the thumper. The last 1/4-1/3rd of both my clearing vessels was mush. The last part poured out like a milk shake. Slowed down in the funnel so bad I spilled some. My 15.5 keg thumper is full of thick sloppy crap right now. Gonna keep going until I fill this carboy though. Spirit run may have to be tomorrow. Getting tired of sitting out here.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by aquavita »

So you are getting some of the yeast lees in the mix?
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by shadylane »

aquavita wrote:So you are getting some of the yeast lees in the mix?
I'm not brutal :sarcasm:
The way I've been doing it everything, including the lees gets run through the steam stripper.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

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Well there was a problem.. I've had time to rest and think about it now. About 1.5-2 gallons into filling the carboy this time I saw something floating in my distillate. I just thought it was oils but its not. Its a scorch.

I'm pretty upset about it. I was not sure it was a scorch for the longest time but it is. It doesn't smell so bad like people talk about. The only place it could have come from is my electric element. Its too hot to screw with right now but I'll take it out of the boiler later or tomorrow and survey the damage. Some small piece of junk must have settled on it just right. I was running 11.5-12.0 amps when it happened. And it definitely didn't happen on warm up.

Silver lining is it only contaminated half the low wines. Once I get everything cleaned out the first carboy will at least be unaffected. I an holding out hope that the second half will still be good. Its hard to pick out the scorch. Might be OK.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by jedneck »

I got the shits of squesing grains, so I built a steam boiler. I'm gonna build a wand to cook the grains with soon as I get more solder. Every thing is interchangeable. 5 gallon steam gen/ small boiler 15.5 gallon keg/ big boiler and a stainless 55 gallon barrel to cook the grain in and ferment in. Dump the goo in and run. Still have little odds and rnds to finish up and tear it apart to give a good scrub. I will get better/ more pics then.
Thanks guys for inspiring this thing.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by HDNB »

here is an interesting solution for a scorch (note fourth paragraph in first post)
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=31092

it ain't june 24th yet.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

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HDNB wrote:here is an interesting solution for a scorch (note fourth paragraph in first post)
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=31092

it ain't june 24th yet.
Interesting! "Dio Cornlanka." I'll have a look around but I don't remember ever seeing green walnuts for sale here. I don't know anyone with a tree either. wacabi1 got me worried too about toxins. This still might be a solution though. I could flavor the product and maybe kill the scorch if there is any. Jimbo soaks smoked malts in the low wines to mask it. Maybe "a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that" is in order.

Welcome to the club Jed!
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

Brutal wrote:Well there was a problem.. I've had time to rest and think about it now. About 1.5-2 gallons into filling the carboy this time I saw something floating in my distillate. I just thought it was oils but its not. Its a scorch.
False alarm!!!

No scorch. The element is pristine. Pristine except the base. The base looks like shit!! I took pictures and got ready to make a thread but have decided not to for now. Apparently the base of the Camco 5500 wavy element is made of base mild steel... WHAT THE FUCKING FUUUUCCKKK!! I know everybody uses them but damn. It took me a search or two to figure it out. There is a thread on HBT where they talk about it and apparently the beer guys don't really care if it rusts. Some of them coat it with food grade silicone. fffwrrearraarghghgh. You can buy one with a stainless base here http://www.brewmation.com/Heating_Elements.html

My element base is all black and corroded looking. I scrubbed it in the sink and nothing changed. I filed it down a little and it became shiny again. I am honestly pissed off about this. But it also means that if I skim the floaty shit off my low wines I'm pretty much good to use it all. I knew it didn't smell like a scorch!

Here's my explanation: I leave shit in my boiler pretty regular. It doesn't have a drain. Usually I use the water hose and shoot water against the sides as best I can before I use it again. When that happens it knocks off the loose part of the corrosion black shit and I don't notice it. This time I literally made no effort at all to clean the boiler. I figured it was a strip and who cares if it's cleaned. So the black build up was bad because of the two week sit, and I didn't clean it out this time. Why it took till a gallon and a half in to show up?? Dunno.

I am going to pour this back and forth between a couple containers and skim all I can off it. Then I will combine it so I can go with the original plan of 10 gallons low wines in the boiler (maybe a couple gallons of water to make sure I don't expose the element), and 1/6th barrel thumper with a half gallon water to start. Game on mofo's!!
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by humbledore »

You mean like this? It is nasty. It cleans up with steel scrubbies. But yes I changed my elements.
element-rust.jpg
Here is an alterate source for SS heating elements:

https://www.brewhardware.com/category_s/1902.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

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humbledore wrote:You mean like this? It is nasty. It cleans up with steel scrubbies. But yes I changed my elements.
The attachment element-rust.jpg is no longer available
Here is an alterate source for SS heating elements:

https://www.brewhardware.com/category_s/1902.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
That's pretty much it HD! But mine is blacker than night. I think its got something to do with the lack of oxygen and highly acidic qualities of the backset I leave in there.
IMG_20150329_221618.jpg
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by shadylane »

My elements look the same.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by HDNB »

i get a little blue copper shit right around there.
kinda pisses me off too.
thanks for the idea on the SS ones.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

I finally (9 weeks later) did the spirit run on my big ass barrel of corn. Feels good to finally be done!!

I ran 10 gallons of low wines at 40% plus 2 gallons of water in my primary boiler. I added the water for safety to try and keep from exposing my element. I started off my 6th barrel (5.15gal) keg thumper with 3/4 gallon of fresh water. When done I drained 5.75 gallon water from the primary boiler (damn close to uncovering the element.) and the thumper went from .750gal starting to about 1.4gal.

After start up I ran it for almost the whole time on 8.5 amps. I collected in quart jars and only filled them to the point where the top starts to narrow. I collected 25 jars.

I did not measure abv much during the run. I tried to just keep my hands off of it. I did measure later in the run and around jar 20 it was still at 72%.

I need to air them out and attempt cuts now. The reason I say attempt is because the smells from this run are not at all what I am familiar with. I actually thought I was getting close to tails on about jar 8.. Let me explain. Over the last few years on my sugar washes (UJ) I used to try and get this one part of the run. My original still, the Breuhaus essential extractor, used to do pretty good at. It was a crazy smell and taste that comes right before the tails starts. With the EE and its slight reflux design it would push back the tails it I ran it slowly and I could get that awesome smell and flavor. My thumper does this to a point too. But back on topic I swear something like that started happening about jar 8 and it never quit. It was there all the way till the #24-25 jars that came out cloudy. I think it progressively got stronger, but I'm not sure. I was pretty confused by it. Is this just the way all grain is? Maybe that's why people talk about having to age it.

Anyway I think heads was ending in jar 4. That's impressive. I have no idea where tails really was as there was not any distinct wet cardboard smell. I know I wont be using the last 2 because they are cloudy. Even if I only get to keep half of this I think I have hit my three gallon keeper prediction/goal. Wish it didn't take me 9 weeks to get it all done! Life gets in the way.. Speaking of life, I have to go mow the lawn. Talk to y'all folks later tonight.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by firewater69 »

Sounds like a great run Brutal, congrats.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

Well as usual I seem to have gone too far into tails. All my likker turned slightly cloudy in a day. I found cuts to be hard on this all grain mainly because there are so many flavors there. Far more complicated than cuts on a sugar based recipe. But as mentioned, I'm good at screwing those up too. For the record it would have been a little over 3 gallons the way I cut it if I hadn't drank a couple quarts over the last few weeks. It stands at 2.5, but both those other jars were probably 73-75%. I mixed them in to make drinks.

Moving forward I got to start another batch today. Few things to cover. I read on another forum that food grade barrels don't hold up well against repeated trips over 130f. I had a chance to score a stainless drum locally for cheap so I went for it. I'm not mashing in it today, but I am doing a smaller batch in my big barrel to try and get the size right for when I start using the slightly smaller ss drum. This one is 30 gallons of water, 50 lbs cracked corn (once through the Corona mill) and 12.5 lbs of malts 60/30 barley/rye. Hoping to end at 45-48 gallons total volume.

I did it just like last time and I think that was a mistake. I added all the grains to the water about 30 hours ago to let them soak. I knew that the malts would contain bacteria. I wanted to let them go for a day and then when I steam heat the barrel it will kill them all and leave behind the flavors. They would become yeast nutrients haha. Well they sure did try taking off with it. Made a funky smell but it's not puke so I'm OK with it. The mistake was that the pH dropped to 4.0! Now I will have to add things to the mash to get it back up, and then add even more to get it back down again. I like to add as little as possible to the mash so this is not what I wanted.

Heating is going much faster on this smaller batch. Took an hour and 15 minutes of steam to get in the mid 140's. My digital thermometer is not reading accurately, which is disappointing. I haven't even had it for long. It's a Taylor 1470n.

So far I've given it a 45 minute rest in the 140 range, and now the heat is back on. I added a small amount of gypsum and that only got it up to 4.3 pH. I just added some crushed oyster shells, about a teaspoon full. They are crushed to the size of cat litter. I think it will take 45 minutes to an hour to reach 190. I am going to add more slowly. I don't want to add too much and then be unable to get the pH back down.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by S-Cackalacky »

Brutal, I'm impressed with the scale of what you did, but I don't think I would ever survive doing a run that big. I want to do something similar, but will scale it down for a 5 gallon boiler and 4 gallon thumper. Maybe a total wash closer to about 18 gallons - 3 strips and a spirit run. Hope to get just over a gallon after blending cuts.

Like you say, life gets in the way. With Spring here, there's lots of outdoor stuff to be done. I also have a rice vodka to do first - wife appeasement project.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by shadylane »

Just a thought Brutal
I haven't tried this yet but it sounds like a good idea while I'm drinking.
For a faster pH adjustment you could use the bur mill to grind the oyster shells finer.
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

SC this can all be done on any scale you want. You could even do it on a stove top, cooking one stock pot from another with steam. Trying to process this much mash is definitely a challenge. First trip down the road you hit the most curbs.

So when I fired the steam back up it took about an hour to hit 190. Straight through it would have been just under two hours I think. I tried to adjust the ph up but its no use. I added three small handfuls of oyster shells and it did nothing. It's still 4.2-4.3. It sucks that this mash will not be able to be optimal.

The mash looks pretty damn good. It has had the appearance of conversion and separation when I let it sit, and it flows very very well. Right now The total volume is just on the low side of the 40 gallon mark. I drained the boiler and measured it and it added 5 gallons to the mash this time. Once again it would have been less if I didn't stop in the middle. I can easily mix the entire thing. When I put my mixer down to the bottom of the barrel it hits with a thump. It's not hitting grain bed, there is no grain bed. Even after sitting for 30 minutes it goes straight to the bottom of the barrel.

I stopped and let it sit for 45 minutes in the mid 140 range, and then it took the steamer probably 15 minutes to get it above 150. So it got an hour of natural grain enzyme conversion. Sebstar has been in it the whole time but it's way out of it's pH range. I'm giving it a rest right now through the 180's. I was planning to go add some murky all corn backset to it, along with 4 prenatal vitamins, and some epsom salt. Sebamyl at 150 of course. Hoping to get it to 150 before I go to bed tonight and then let it sit until I get home from work tomorrow night. I know that seems like a long time, but with it sitting in the barrel with the lid on right now at 190 it is sterilizing every surface. I am hoping it will be alright. I've left myself without much choice.

I did this planning on having better efficiency than average. With nothing else added right now its at 1.77lbs of grain per gallon, if i only add 3 gallons it will be 1.63, and if I add 5 more gallons like I plan to it will be at 1.55.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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Brutal
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by Brutal »

shadylane wrote:Just a thought Brutal
I haven't tried this yet but it sounds like a good idea while I'm drinking.
For a faster pH adjustment you could use the bur mill to grind the oyster shells finer.
Thought about that, but didn't know if it would kill the mill. Last time at the brew store I picked up a whole pound of powdered citric acid, but it didn't even occur to me to get something to decrease acidity quickly. On the all corn mash I only had to make it go down. This one threw me a loop.
Steam injection rig http://tinyurl.com/kxmz8hy
All grain corn mash with steam injection and enzymes http://tinyurl.com/mp6zdt5
Inner tube condenser http://tinyurl.com/zkp3ps6
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shadylane
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Re: Mashing 100lbs of cracked corn with steam injection

Post by shadylane »

Sounds like it's time to grab the arm and hammer baking soda.
And pray.
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