Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

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levaninep
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Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by levaninep »

Hello friends!

Can you tell me how many liters final product you get (40% ABV) from 6 kg corn ?

I did mash 20 liter water+ 6 kg corn.

after two run, how much product I have to got?!
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by still_stirrin »

levaninep wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:21 am Hello friends!

Can you tell me how many liters final product you get (40% ABV) from 6 kg corn ?

I did mash 20 liter water+ 6 kg corn.

after two run, how much product I have to got?!
You’ll “get what you get”.

6kg of corn is not a lot of fermentable material. Do you also use any malted barley? How are you converting the corn? How fine is the grind?

Brewer’s Friend predicts an OG=1.025 (2.5%ABV potential) from 6kg corn in a 20 liter mash.

If you collect it all from the still (you won’t actually), you could collect: 2.5% x 20 = 0.5 liter @ 100%ABV (theoretical). Practically, you could get collect: 0.5 / 40% = 1.25 liter @ 40%ABV (without any cuts made).

You won’t actually get that much out due to inefficiencies throughout the process.
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levaninep
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by levaninep »

Converted with alfa and gluco Amylase, stsrtig gravity SG was 1.051 and I think it is low...
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by jonnys_spirit »

If you know the starting and finishing gravity you know the abv and total alcohol in the mash.

If I do a ~50gallon mash at about 10% (5g @ 100%) after strip and spirit runs I keep approx 2.5 gallons at 120’ish proof plus three gallons of feints for next spirit run.

Estimate maybe 1/3 of total etoh in yoir ferment for your hesrts cut depending on how your cut it and run it.

Keep doing recipes and you’ll get a better feel for the math.

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elbono
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by elbono »

When I started playing with corn I looked at some fuel alcohol data and decided a yield of 3.5-4 liters of ethanol from 10 kg of corn is good.

I know this depends on the variety of corn, conversion to sugar, conversion to alcohol...

I seem to be getting close to that but what are opinions on the theoretical conversion rate you can get?
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by Deplorable »

I'm regularly getting an OG of 1.064 to 1.068 from 2.2 pound of corn to a gallon of water using Ferm Solutions enzymes to convert.
How much you get depends on your efficiency.
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by greggn »

elbono wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 3:41 pm
I know this depends on the variety of corn, conversion to sugar, conversion to alcohol...

It's also dependent upon how coarse or fine you mill the corn.

It's also highly dependent on the type of corn used. Whole kernel is going to be far less productive than cornmeal which, typically in the US, has had the pericarp (hull) removed therefore providing a higher percentage of starch.
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elbono
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by elbono »

My question is how much is possible if everything is perfect using corn (not corn meal). Perfect gelatinization, perfect starch to sugar conversion, perfect fermentation, perfect distillation, perfect anything I forgot to list.

What is the theoretical yield possible?
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by still_stirrin »

elbono wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 6:04 amWhat is the theoretical yield possible?
My Brewer’s Friend calculator says that the (theoretical) points per pound per gallon (PPG) for corn grits/cornmeal is 15 PPG at 100% efficiency. That means you’d get an OG = 1.015 for 1 pound of the grain in a gallon of mash water (at 100% extraction).

But malted corn has a 37 PPG potential at 100% extraction. So, malting the corn will help your mash efficiency significantly.

As a comparison, wheat malt is 38 PPG at 100% extraction. And a pale ale malt is 33 PPG at 100% extraction.
So, this may help you understand corn’s potential to another benchmark.
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elbono
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by elbono »

I believe this is the data I saw on fuel ethanol.:https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ ... mentation/

It says 1 bushel of corn yields 2.7 gallons of ethanol and a bushel of corn weighs 56 lb. I assume that's a bushel of shelled corn not ear corn. Since it's industrial scale they probably use enzymes for conversion and aggressive yeast.

This boils down to 1/2 liters ethanol per kg corn.
<Edit - don't do arithmetic under the influence>

Is this a reasonable theoretical maximum to judge my process by?

How does this compare to yields people here are getting?
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by dragon9874 »

still_stirrin wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:01 am
levaninep wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:21 am Hello friends!

Can you tell me how many liters final product you get (40% ABV) from 6 kg corn ?

I did mash 20 liter water+ 6 kg corn.

after two run, how much product I have to got?!
You’ll “get what you get”.
i liked your 1st answer best SS :-) same run... same sugar, same water, same wort, same EVERYTHING will turn out a bit diff every time. give it all the math you want, it'll give you possibilities but... like Buddha says "what is, is" (or to quote SS: "get what you get"). it's the most honest answer. period. :-)
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by Corn Cracker »

The unspoken one on YouTube did a 3 batch, side by side of mash/wash using 1 gallon of water, 1pound cracked,1pound flaked and 1pound plain table Sugar.

Cracked yielded an s.g of 1.020
Flaked yielded an s.g of 1.033
Sugar yielded an s.g of 1.044

Is it perfect everytime, probobly not
But, it's a good starting point for figuring out what your s.g should be on average.
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Evil_Dark
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by Evil_Dark »

I depends on the final product you want to have... You'll be able to have more output if you want to make fuel, but if you want to have spirits, the more you try to squeeze your ferment to have more alcohol, more likely you'll have bad tastes in it... So you'll get more alcohol, but it won't be drinkable... So your yield will diminushes drastically!
In spirits, the golden key is to not stress the yeasts. For fuel, well the more you produce/extract alcohol the better it is! Two different approaches.
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Re: Spirit Yeld from Corn ?!

Post by Bee »

levaninep wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:23 am Converted with alfa and gluco Amylase, stsrtig gravity SG was 1.051 and I think it is low...
That's about what I've seen with 2lbs/gal. Ends up about 7% when you ferment to under 1.000.
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