5#cracked corn milled to meal consistency.
2# Flaked rye (unmilled)
1# American Roasted barley (milled)
4# Malted rye (milled)
2tbs Red Star DADY, hydrated.
Also included was 1 tbs powdered Alpha Amylaze, 1 tbs powdered Gluco Amylaze, a large handful of oyster shells in a cheesecloth bag. I used 5 gals. of tap water for the cook. Grains were bought from Midwest Supply, corn was from my stock.
I milled all the grains (except the flaked rye) in a blender to a medium fine consistency. I used my Bayou 8 gal stock pot over propane with a diffuser plate. When water hit 200, I stirred in corn and flaked rye. After 5 minutes at 205f I added roasted barley. I reduced heat to a slow simmer, about 195f and used a fluted paddle mixer on a medium speed 1/3hp drill. This I have mounted to a stand I welded up, it keeps things moving nicely so no scorch. The mixture maintained a consistency of loose cake batter. Once the roasted barley was added, it darkened to a chocolate brown so lets say brownie batter. It had a pleasant, nutty aroma similar to roasted chestnuts. I kept it like this stirring constantly for 90 minutes. At this time I shut of heat and continued to stir for another 30 minutes. When temp dropped to 156f I added the Alpha. At 150 I added the malted rye. Stirred for another 30 minutes then dumped everything into my insulated 8 gal ferment pail and topped off for 6.5 gal. I covered and let sit overnight. After it cooled down to just under 80f, I added the gluco. By now the mixture had thinned significantly although fine grains were still suspended. It looked at this stage…unattractive. Think septic tank! Good thing we don’t judge on looks here. I strained some through a coffee filter enough to get a SG reading; 1.058 which is about what I expected. Iodine test was clear though tough to tell given the darkness of the liquid. I pitched hydrated yeast at 78f, threw in the oyster shells and set ‘er down in my ferment chamber (75f). Over the next six days the airlock was choochin’ away, merrily for the first 3 days then gradually slowing down to no visible activity at the end of day 6. I strained a sample to measure FG 1.008 about 6.5 ABV potential. It smelled like BEER…think of a glass of Bock or Stout that has been left out overnight. The taste was also beer like with a bitter/sour aftertaste. I let it settle for a day, then stripped out collecting to 30%ABV. I got a bit less than ¾ of a gallon (more on this later).
This morning I ran the spirit run using my small jar method. I now have airing 10 1/2pt jars. A little sampling of the hearts of this run holds wonderful promise. The spirit is spicy, with a toasted nutty portion, and an aromatic presence along the lines of clove but not nearly as strong. No sugary sweetness or heavy corn flavor found. I’ll blend this in a day or two, my guess is I’ll get a qt. to 1 ½ qts to age at 65%. I believe it is going to be a great drink. Thanx Mr. Still Life for sharing.
Observations:
As I mentioned before, this is not a pretty mash. The photos show 1 ferment pail with a corn ,rye, malted barley wash, the other is this roasted barley rye. I am a bit disappointed in what will be the yield of my final product. When I racked this into my boiler, I could only recover about 4.5 gallons from the 6.5 gallon wash. Getting down near the grain bed, the fine particles from the milled grains were sitting 6” or more at the bottom. While there was a decent amount of liquid there, there is no way to strain or separate it from the solids unless one has a centrifuge. This was the consistency of Cream of Wheat cereal. All grains can be a bitch I guess but I don’t like leaving appx 2 gallons of distillable wash in the pail. A lot of effort to yield under a half gallon of finished product roughly. A larger fermenter like a Brute may be better. I want to run this recipe again but next time I think I will use flaked grains and not mill the roasted barley and rye malt. I can steep the mash in my false bottomed Igloo cooler and then ferment off the grain. I believe I will get more beer to distill this way. I would like to try it that way. All in all a very interesting recipe, that I cannot wait to try after some aging.
