My experiment preposal. Determining effectiveness of Beano

[AfricaUnite]

Hey guys things have finally slowed down with school and Im running out of UJSM that I made this time last year. Ive been reading a lot about beano and want to see how effective it is at converting starches to fermentable sugars. Although from what ive read Beano only works to break down complex sugars to simple ones I am worried it will have no effect on a no cook mash such as UJSM. Either way here is what I am going to do since I was going to make UJSM anyways.

My control mash will follow the traditional UJSM except I will be using 8.8lbs of sugar and 8.8lbs of cracked corn in 25L of water (UJSM calls for 7lbs of each in 20 litres of water, the ratios turn out to be almost the same)

The reason I am using 8.8 is because I get sugar in 4kg bags. I want to make sure I keep the sugar addition the exact same for each wash I make in order to achieve the exact same potential alcohol from the sugar. The only variable that should effect alcohol is how much of the corn starch gets converted into alcohol.

So I make the control mash as per the recipie.

The experimental mash will be the exact same in all respects (sugar, yeast, water, calcium) except I will add a certain amount of crushed beano tablets (Just ordered will not arrive until this week, which is why I am doing the control first)

Once both mash's are completed I will test for alcohol with an ebulliometer which I have access to in order to get a fairly accurate alcohol reading.

I hope to see the beano wash with a higher alcohol content.

I would also like to do a mash following the same parameters but using AG. Unfortunatly none of my LHBS have it and the site I order a lot of supplies from in the states (northernbrewer.com) is out and is having trouble sourcing it. If anyone has access to some I would gladly paypal for shipping/cost of materials/your trouble.

If anyone sees any major flaws in this plan please let me know as I plan to start my control tonight, which I will post pictures and a write up as I go. I am not a science oriented type guy so I dont know how experiments SHOULD be run but this makes sense to me and its something I really want to see (the effectiveness of beano in a no cook mash) Later this month I will be doing some cooked corn mash's (80% corn, 20% barley) and may repeat the same experiment then.

Also if something like this has been done before and I am wasting my time please let me know also. Thanks guys.

-AU

[junkyard dawg]

well, I think this has been done before...

At least the theory is pretty solid. Whether anyone has compared distilling mash I don't know...

I think of it this way, starch is simple sugar all stuck together in long strands... Amylase will break that down (AG too) into mostly fermentable sugars, but some will still be stuck together... Beano, alpha galactosidase, will break down some more of those big sugars into the fermentable kind. When used with amylase, it will boost the yield somewhat. By itself, it has less big sugars to work on so it will be less effective.

If you want the most bang for your buck, go with the amylase or AG enzymes. They will break down the starches into fermentable sugars... then, a little beano might help a little.

Its all sort of irrelevant to UJSM. In that recipe, the alcohol comes from the sugar. Flavor from the corn. If you wanna mash some corn then just do it. Nothing compares to the flavors of the traditional ways... But choose the right enzymes at the right times... Beer brewers have this part of the art down to a science. In UJSM if you want a little more alcohol content, then just add more sugar.

[AfricaUnite]

I was under the impression that a small percentage of the starch would be converted to fermentable sugar during the fermentation process. This is what I am banking on for the end results. If my results show less than 0.5% ABV difference in the mash's then in my mind it dosent make a difference. But if there is more than 0.5% ABV difference then it will be a worthwhile thing to add for me. I am not so much looking for higher alcohol but in my mind if the corn is contributing some of that alcohol it is one step closer to a cooked mash and as it is contributing to the alcohol it should be contributing more corn flavour as it is breaking down more.

I am in no way trying to get around the fact the cooking is the traditional and IMO best way to make a corn mash for whisky, I think using white sugar in anything (wine, beer mash for whisky, rum) dilutes the flavour of the resulting product. I just got it into my head that I wanted to see if Beano/amylase/AG had any effect on a no cook mash. And I couldnt find anyone who did a controlled experiment to prove/disprove it. I read a lot of theory and chemistry type talk about it but nothing that really finalized an answer for me. Im wierd that way. Plus I need some more whisky and UJSM did me well last year and Ive got a lot of time on my hands now.

[junkyard dawg]

yeah, I got some time too... and a hell of a head cold right now...

I'm trying to drink my way through it... I think the cough is better when I drink whiskey...

I hear what your saying... I think you should proceed and see what happens. I do think that amylase will still work at lower temps, and provide a better yield than beano alone. JMHO...

edited to add...

somewhere I have seen a table of enzyme efficiency vs temperature... might provide some insight, but I don't recall where I saw that...

[cornwhiskey]

I just made this mash:

10.75 lbs flaked corn
2.5 lbs 2-row
WLP 028 Edinburgh ale yeast

It had and OG of 1.065 and it stopped at 1.008. I added some liquid Beano and in about 4 days time it has gotten down to 1.002. So the Beano helped bring it down 6 gravity points and has brought from 7.5% ABV to 8.3%. It still seems to be working a little too, so it may get below 1.00.