I was bored with fermenting using sugar base mash and have started experimenting using All Grain washes. My first attempt came out rather well using malted red wheat, malted rye and US 05, I have that resting on oak.
This new batch was:
7.5lb cracked corn
7.5lb ground sweet feed
4lb 2 row
8 gals of water
1 gal of backset
2 tbsp. gypsum
bakers yeast
My SG was 1.057 and my FG 1.015 should give me a 5.5% wash. Now after letting things settle out, I racked off the clear liquid and strained what was left on the bottom: See Picture
1st question: Would you run the carboy on the right thru a pot still with the strained solids without funking things up.
2nd question: Recommendation on bumping up the ABV
I would not recommend straining the solids. Try giving it more time to settle. Cold crash it. Go to the brew shop and buy some clearing agents. I've strained exactly what you have there and it was very funky to say the least.
Thanks for the reply, I set it out in the snow for 2 days after racking, could not get it to strain thru a coffee filter, I hate to pitch it. Are you talking bentonite or turbo clear?
Last edited by Catch 22 on Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I've been thinking about your problem, do what you can to clear it, but in the end if you need to strain it let it settle for a couple days and then carefully siphone it into your boiler.
Catch 22, there is something you can do for me. I have on occasion had the same problem with corn, wheat and rye mashes in the past. I've not yet determined to my satisfaction, what causes this... Situation. Can you give me complete details on both mashes?
It is only one mash, I have the grain bill & recipe posted at the top. I boiled all the water & gypsum, added all the grain at the same time and let that seep for a few hours till it got down to 152F picked my 2 row and it thinned out very nicely, when it got down to 80F I picked 2 table spoons of bakers. It fermented for 6 days on grain, I squeezed the hell out of it and I set it in the snow for 2 days off and on, (mostly on) and then racked it. I have about 5 gal to run and about 2 that is very cloudy. Took the picture after the third day of settling. I guess I'll save it, just made a batch of flaked wheat & flaked rye I'll take the cloudy bottom of this and try turbo clear, see how that works>
Seems strange that the same mash produced the contents of both of those fermenters. I would like to know why one is clear and the other appears to be full of coagulated protein.
In your first post you said after fermenting you let it settle then racked the clear liquid and strained the rest. Is the fermenter on the left filled with the clear liquid that you racked? And the fermenter on the right filled with what you squeezed?
It all started with one fermenter after I strained and squeezed out the solids (I ferment on the grains). What was in the bottle on the right is what was left in the fermenter after I rackedthe bottle on the left off. I then strained the liquid again that is in the right carboy and put that one in and out of the snow for a couple of days with no further separation. I did run the carboy on the left the other day and made some very nice stuff only yielded about 1/2 gal of very good likir. My question to you and the forum is would you run the carboy on the right or would you add a product like Turbo Clear? Any Thought's
Last edited by Catch 22 on Tue Dec 24, 2013 3:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Here is a flaked wheat, flaked rye and 2 row recipe I have going now that I just squeezed and stained to a secondary fermenter(6.5 gal) after starting with (8 gal) I will add my backset after it clears this time, also gonna try some turbo clear to see how that works out
Ok, I understand your process. You fermented on the grain in one fermenter, siphoned the clear stuff into one fermenter and squeezed off the grains into another fermenter. So how does it smell? Does it smell like something you wouldn't mind taking tasting?
I would not run it. I would not try to clear it. In the past I would have tried to clear it and run it but I don't do that anymore. I found that when I squeezed, stained or filtered the grains I ended up with something that had a very noticeable yeasty taste. I run a pot still and this taste was.present in the heads, hearts and tails. Aging only reduced it slightly. Now I squeeze the grain before fermenting and I ferment off the grain. There are plenty here that might disagree, maybe you should run it and decide for yourself.
You also asked what could be done about increasing abv. While remaining an all grain, you can increase the grain to water ratio and you can try to improve your efficiency. I would start with improving efficiency. A fg of 1.015 can be improved upon. If you can control your mash temps try adding your malt at 110 F and slowly raise the temp to 148 F and hold until fully converted.
