When is mash too thick for hydrometer reading?

hillbilly_john · Post by **hillbilly_john** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:06 am

So last night was a lonnnnggg night. I went ahead with the afformentioned first wash recipe - NOTE : THIS IS TOO MUCH GRAIN FOR 5 GALLONS OF WATER!!!! I had a 30L pot full of cement-like goooo. I ended up scooping out about 1/3 of the pot and re-hydrating the whole thing. Anyway, I think I still might be shy on water. The hydrometer will not give a reading. So the question is "how thick is too thick for a mash"? I'm sure mine is too thick but I didn't know if I should just keep cutting it with water or what.

It was late so I went ahead and pitched the yeast, after 4 hours it hadn't done much yet, which I assume isn't that unusual.

P.S. I emphasize that I have indeed read and read and read this site. I took my recipe from this site. I put my plans up for eval and got thumbs up on this site.

P.P.S. - Isn't there a way to configure the search function on these forums to sort results by relavance? Searching for just about any terms yields the same results. Just a suggestion.

possum · Post by **possum** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:36 am

2 options are available. The easiest is to have more fermenter space, divide up the mash in 2, 1/2 batches, and add water. Supprising how much the grain swells isn't it ?

The second option is to strain out some of the grain before the yeast goes in, and store it in a fridge or freezer or a cold cellar. This is what I had to do when I did my first big grain mash. Then I added it to my fermenter with sugar water after the first run was done.

You never mentioned the size wash/mash you intended to make...but we didn't ask either. There should be enough water that you can stir it whithout just shoveling the stuff around. I think you should probably try for 10 gallons total.

2/10 rye in the grainbill should be nice and spicey...I did 1/9 rye, and got full flavor. Let us know how your product comes out. I posted what I have been making on the "shazam--full flavored whiskey" on recipees.

hillbilly_john · Post by **hillbilly_john** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:46 am

Thanks. I was shooting for a 5-ish gallon ferment. I use 6-gallon buckets. I did reserve the grains I removed in a bucket with some water in a cool space. I figured I'd run that with some sugar tonight just for grins. I'm just in experiment phase so failure is tolerated.

My boil pot is 7 gallons.

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:39 am

It sounds to me like your starches didn't convert very well. Is the mixture sticky like oatmeal? When all the starch gets turned into sugar, the glue like consistency goes away.
A high iron content in your water can prevent the enzymes in the malt from working. Did you do an iodine test after your conversion phase?

hillbilly_john · Post by **hillbilly_john** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:06 pm

At first it was like really dry oatmeal. After adding water, it was very stirrable but I couldn't get any liquid out of it. More like mush.

re: Iodine test - Ok, I finally found the iodine test and will try next time. Not sure why the search function gives me such a hard time.

When I first put the corn and rye flakes in, I wonder if the water was too hot. Could that cause the problem you are referring to? I got it down to the 150c range before putting in the malt.

Anyway, I checked the ferment at lunchtime and it's burping about every 20-30 seconds(plastic s-type airlock) about 9 hours after pitching yeast. FWIW

Thanks a lot for the help!

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:12 pm

It sounds like you did everything right. As was stated above, maybe you just need some more water.

Bujapat · Post by **Bujapat** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:42 pm

Hello,
I just had the same problem with my last wash, last wednesday!
For the first time, I tried to brew flaked rye... The result was also like oatmeal! It was so pasty that I was obliged to brew the half of it at the same time... Malted grains (1/10 of total weight) did effect... It became liquid and iodine test was good... (see picture : right : before to brew; left : after 2 hours brewing)

But it didn't work so well for the second half, it remained starch, as iodine test showed (sorry, no pict).
No matter, I putted the 2 halfs together in a fermenter and pitched yeast.
It took quite a long time to begin (24 hours), but now is it bubbling fast... I'll see the result in a few days... I think yeald will not be so good as usually, since starch remained in the wash...
Finally, I ask me the question if the problem would come from using flakes instead of grain... Anybody has an idea?

hillbilly_john · Post by **hillbilly_john** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:26 am

Iodine test????...I thought that was my uncle jake staring back at me with a hangover<G>.

Status update: I pitched yeast at 1am Thursday. By noon it was showing signs of life and last night it was bubbling to beat the band. Steady co2. Spewed a little out the top but no old-faithful type action. Still bubbling right-steady Friday morning. I'm hoping it'll be done Sunday and I'll run my first batch thru the little kenmore 1-gallon distiller. I could probably get the valved reflux head done by then but haven't found a boiler yet.

Thanks again for the input.
johnboy

hillbilly_john · Post by **hillbilly_john** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:37 am

Sunday Status: The mash steadily blew gas thru Saturday, smells good, like bread dough. Quit bubbling on Sunday so I pulled the liquid off. I only managed to squeeze about 3 gallons (a little more) out of the grain. While I couldn't get a hydro reading on the before, I can smell pretty strong alcohol odor.

Now off to the kenmore water distiller - I'll post distilling results on my other thread regarding the distiller