Protein Rest/Flint Corn

[Powder Monkey]

I’m looking for some collective opinions related to protein rests and secondarily to those that have experimented with the nuances of corn varieties other than yellow dent.

I’ve been distilling for about three years, mainly rum but have had some successful bourbon style products. I also homebrew beer on occasion. I operate a small farm and grow a variety of grains and look forward to experimenting with some nuances of less frequently utilized base grains. At this point my skill/process is not refined or controlled enough to eliminate the multitude of variables in comparing recipe A to recipe B, at least on a scale I could get good data from. I hope to achieve this point in the future. Thus I’m looking for opinions/experience on the subject as I move forward with experimentation.

1)How much would a protein rest effect outcome, namely flavor, with higher protein content adjuncts? For example the flint corn I grew is higher protein/lower starch. I know yeast like free N (can also be added via nutrients), I’ve also read freeing up proteins can contribute to ester/aldehyde formation (this fact(?) is the main impetus for my theory) and also read it can reduce puking. If protein potentially plays a part on flavor development (among 200 other factors), and it is a key characteristic of the grains chosen, it could be something to play with. Or maybe I’m overthinking it and this is such a minute factor it doesn’t matter.

2)How would one design that process? I can figure out ways to heat a mash but I currently do the boil water/cook corn cool to mash and ferment on grain before straining method. I could cool the corn then do a step mash, but don’t have a good way to directly heat the mash at those temps. I would envision adding in some additional distillers malt at protein rest temps 120-130F, after saccharification and “sacrifice” the small amount of potential conversion. How much would one use for this as there is no equivalent measure of “DP” for proteases.

Alternatively maybe there is enough overlap between protease and amylase activity that simply performing the mashing step at lower temp 140-142F would have enough carryover between the two.

I believe malting to full conversation of any adjunct would forgo the need for protein rest but it is much easier to grab some grain from the bin.

My attempts have been to compare recipes of 100% flint/50%flint 50%dent etc to isolate the corn nuances, but have had mixed results. Typical recipe has been 90% corn 10%distillers malt. I do add enzymes to hasten the thinning of the corn. In the future I’d like to experiment with some oats and buckwheat as well as other corn varieties.

Hopefully these various thoughts might result in some good discussion.