Natural Progression, first mashing attempt.

[Nightforce]

Well I'm attempting my first mash. 20# cracked corn and 5# malted 6 row barley. I boiled about 7 gallons of water, dumped in the corn and cooked it and stirred it for about 30 minutes. Then turned off the heat and let it cool to about 145F. Had a THICK oatmeal/porriage type slop that I added about a 1/2 gallon of water to in order to be able to stir in the malted barley. Maybe an hour in it's back to a fairly thick liquid but the wooden stirring stick that I'm using has a hard time standing up.

Does it sound like I'm on the right track or have I goofed somewhere along the line. I plan on letting it sit overnight after it's been at 140-145 for 2 hours.

[Tater]

Sounds like ya haven't read much on grain mashing . Might wanna give that a reread on grain to water ratios.

[Nightforce]

...so it looks like I'm 6.5 gallons short on water.

4.5L/kg or 1/2gallon/pound of grain?

[Tater]

Some go to 2 lbs per gallon water but I seem to have better luck using less grain then that . Most my mashes are 1 - 1 1/2lb at most to gallon water and that's figuring all grain including the malted grain.Might have less yield but all ways seem to have good conversions and ferments.

[Nightforce]

DAMN! Live and learn, LOL I've read so much I got all confused. Read somewhere to use half again as much water as to grain, 20# was about a 5 gallon bucket full so I used 7 gallon. Goofed that one up.

Gonna split the batch, add water, and see what happens.

[trthskr4]

You can also try 1-1 ratio of grain to water, then drain the liquid and do it again but use the liquid from the first cooking instead of water to boil the second in. Just top up with water to keep the 1-1 liquid to grain ratio. I never go above 1.5lbs per gallon. There is a point of diminishing returns.

[Nightforce]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to cook the rest of the batch tonight from the split, check s.g. and adjust if needed and pitch some yeast.

Next I'll try this "recipe", 10# cracked corn, 2# malted barley, and 8 gallons water. That should put me in the 1.5#/gallon grain/water ratio and 83% corn, 17% barley mash.

[trthskr4]

Give it a whirl and see how it works out for ya. Let us know what you think.

[Nightforce]

Checked the s.g. of the wash, its at 1.040 so not to far off the 1.046. Only going to give a 5% wash if it gets to 1.00, maybe a 6% if it gets below 1 final gravity. Next wash should work better with the right mix. Got 5# more malted barley so I need more corn now.

[Nightforce]

First part of the botched mash is fermenting nicely, with a not to bad corn/barley mash smell. I had to leave the second half in the kettle for a couple of days before I could get to it. It was 140±F when I left it in the kettle with a fitting lid (custom stainless crab steamer with an overlapping lid that is my old mans). Well I pulled off the lid tonight and holy hell what funk I smelled. It was slightly foamy and smelled like someone vomited in the pot. I went ahead and strained it out and I hope it's what others have described as I guess the lactic ferment. I'll give it a few days to finish up then pitch some EC-1118.

This mashing thing is a whole new ball game.

[trthskr4]

If it's a full on lactic then it'll take about a week or so to complete the process.

Yes it's definitely a whole new ballgame.

[Nightforce]

Okay, it's hard to imagine letting this fully fermenting out the lactic acid and then regular fermenting, then DRINKING it. Especially since the turbo yeast smells better! Is this really a natural way to ferment a mash or is this just a "well, it's alcohol, can't waste alcohol" ferment? Maybe it'll be a candidate for multiple times through the bok and then some carbon filtering.

It sure smells BAD! This one will have to stay in the garage, the wife wouldn't let this one in the house for sure.

[rad14701]

It could be worse, Nightforce... You could be working with communally chewed up vegetation pulp and leaves that ferments from everyones spit... I don't think I'll ever be that desperate for an alcoholic drink...

[Nightforce]

LOL, I've seen that on Discovery Channel I think it was. Yea, I don't think I'll ever get THAT thirsty. Though I would imagine it would smell better than vomit.

[goose eye]

aint gotta smell good but it gotta smell true.
ole boys seen some good beer kicked over cause thems that was mashin never learned true

so im tole

[Nightforce]

So is this ferment on a true sour mash path; like it should be?

No signs of mold or other nasties growing on the surface, just some foam and bubbles like a the end of a good ferment.

Getting ready for a correct ratio mash (or at least I think it is, 10# cracked corn, 2# malted barley, in 8gallons water) and wondering if I should go ahead and leave it to sour or if I should just do a sweet mash.

[Dnderhead]

""So is this ferment on a true sour mash path; like it should be?""
no not a sour mash.