My first corn mash.
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My first corn mash.
Well I did it. 9 days ago I decided to mash up some corn. I took 40# of cornmeal that I hand milled from yellow dent corn. I got a 120qt pot and brought 30 gallons of water to a boil. I mixed in the corn slowly while I stirred pot with a paint mixer and power drill. Once I got it to 200° I kept it between there and 185° for 2 hours. There was nothing easy about getting that much corn cooked at once. The whole ordeal is in my first post/thread in the welcome center if you are bored but I warn you I was drinking some beers and the screen on my phone was cracked to hell when I wrote it so dont judge me on that please. . So now the corn is cooked and I decide to chunk in 1# of banana chips and 5# of Japanese honeysuckles. When the mash cooled down 157° I threw in 10# of 2 row malted barley and an oz of amylase enzyme powder. I stayed with the pot and kept the temp between 147°and 153° by truning the flame on and off. I just lifted the lid every 20 min or so gave the pot a mix and took the temp then would turn the heat on and mix till I got back to 153°. After 3 hours I went to bed cause the whole thing took much longer than expected and was way more work. The next day when my temp hit 93° I threw in my DADY that I had hydrated in warm water and poured it all into the fermenter then gave that all a mix to get some air in there. My garage has been between 78°/92° and the ferment went nicely. Today I got another lesson in corn. I grabbed six 5 gallon buckets, 6 paint strainers, and a small pot from the kitchen to use as a laddle. All I got to say is wholly hell that's a lot of work. In my mind I was gonna fill up a bucket and slowley lift out the corn meal... Well I'm sure you all know that didnt work out. I wound up putting one pot full into a paint strainer lined bucket at a time and massaging the liquid out till I got to a point I could squeeze the shit out of it and wound up with a softball sized lump of corn. Then I ran it all back through a triple lined bucket. This took me about 2 hours and my hands are feeling it. I definitely need a to get a better plan for that next time. Everything is currently sitting in the buckets to settle a bit and finish fermenting if need be. I'll be setting up the copper tommorow and am excited to see what I get. My plan is to do strip two 10 gallon runs then add it all back into the last 7 gallons of mash and run it low and slow making a lot of small cuts to taste and mix later. More than open to criticism / guidance if anybody notices anything crazy with that idea. Just so you know I do plan on following the Casual corn method with my next round I was just waiting on high temp enzymes and had all the stuff to do this sitting around.
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- Master of Distillation
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Re: My first corn mash.
I guess that's one way of spending time.. but a little research, taking notes, and getting the right tools and ingredient, would of made life a lot more enjoyable and experiencing..
Research high temp enzymes and how to use them properly, and the mop wringer system.. they will make hobby simpler and enjoyable..
Mars
" I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent. Curiosity, Obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my knowledge and understanding "
– Albert Einstein
– Albert Einstein
Re: My first corn mash.
I'd recommend hydrometer readings before and after fermentation, and checking for starch conversion to sugars with iodine. Good ways to evaluate your mashing practices. I personally would add malt closer to 150 degrees for a drier ferment. Squeezing wort out of corn is a bitch...searching the forum will reveal several ways to choose from.
Good judgement is the result of experience.
Experience is usually the result of bad judgement..
Experience is usually the result of bad judgement..
Re: My first corn mash.
Forgot to mention I did the conversion test and from what I can tell it worked. I tried to get a reading before I fermented but it was sludge, not sure how that works sort of pulling out the paint strainer and laddle wich I didn't want to do. I didnt want to introduce anything but my yeast into the fermenter so I honestly didnt try too hard. I figured ill get what I get. I had heard of the mop bucket idea but dont own one so I didnt do that. I'll be taking a reading tommorow when I'm sure the ferment has finished but ill be honest I dont see the point cause I'll get what I get. I'm more of a let my hair down kinda guy. I have been cooking on a elite level for 20 years and am very capable of following or developing a recipe and like I said plan to do that as soon as my package arrives. I had bought all the other items before discovering this site. But for the record I had a lot of fun and cant wait to do it all again. Mostly just wanted to know if there was a reason not to add low wines to the final run of mash and call it good. I want to keep as much honeysuckle flavor as possible the mash taste strongly of it so I'm optimistic it will carry over. Oh and to share my experience with anyone interested in it of course
Re: My first corn mash.
I will keep on reading for sure. And I will keep a note book on my methods from now on simply so I can have more freedom to play around with them. I really was just bored and excited to do something. I also got into this to have fun and as a creative outlet. I closed the doors to my Cafe on the 31st of march and have yet to reopen so I need something. Cooking for a 9 and 2 year old dosent cut it.Thanks for the tip on a better temp to add malt. I honeslty thought it would drop the temp more when I threw it in but it took about 30 min of stirring to get it down to the 153. That was my target temp simply because its what the package of enzymes said was ideal.
Re: My first corn mash.
Well I'm running my first 10 gallons. Decide to go low and slow and just keep everything that tasted good. Wound up with 3 qts and counting so far but the abv is starting to drop off. I'll run 10 more tommorow the same way and play it by ear as far as adding all that back into my final 7 gallons for a "final run" or can I call it a spirit run? Either way ill have something to play around with. Im a far way off from even pretending like I can make cuts. This is all very new to me but I will say its a marked improvment over the sugar head I made last month. Sorry if y'all dont like reading about my off the cuff experiance but I wanted to share with someone and my wife certainly dont give a danm and noone else knows what I'm up to so that leaves y'all. Cant wait to try out a HB approved method to see what thats all about but damn this shits pretty good as is I think after a little oaking and time I'll have something worth while. Got an update on my high temp liquid enzymes. They will be here tommorow so I'm gonna get to grinding. Also just found out the farm right down the street from me sells corn for 7$ a sack. Looks about 40# or so. and its grown right there so I figure thats gonna be how I roll for now.
Edit: if you can get honeysuckel throw as much as you can in a mash. The lower the abv the sweeter the taste. I'm already looking forward to picking more next year.
Edit: if you can get honeysuckel throw as much as you can in a mash. The lower the abv the sweeter the taste. I'm already looking forward to picking more next year.
Re: My first corn mash.
After (fast) stripping both 10 gal batches see how much low wines you get, may be more than 3 gallons (is 10 gal your max boiler charge?). As you plan add remaining was and do your spirit run. That will be a 1.5 distillation and should be good...
Good judgement is the result of experience.
Experience is usually the result of bad judgement..
Experience is usually the result of bad judgement..
Re: My first corn mash.
Ok. Tommorow I'll run both fast and see what I get. The real reason I went slow was it didnt clear very much, I had a lot of yeast and whatnot in it and I didnt want it to scorch but I'm gaining confedince in the hot plate its plenty hot but not crazy powerful. I ended up with close to a gallon today before it started to taste weak and watery. My max is 10 gallons. I think I will just save it all up. I may lose the honeysuckle but thats cool. I plan to mash up a double batch tommorow so 100# of corn and I'll get the low wines from that and add it all together then do a proper spirit run. The truth is I dont drink all that much I'm just into food so I dont care about output as much as end product. I picked a 100# of apples last week and Got 15 gallons of cider from it going now. Then today I picked 20# of chantrells and ran into a peach tree out in the woods at an old homestead so I picked two 5 gallon buckets full of peaches. Sold the mush at the market but took the peaches home to ripen up a bit more. They are small but they taste great so I hope to get something out of it. I'll probably add sugar to the peaches but I let the apple cider go all natural. I did use this beer yeast I had in the fridge. The guy at the brew store threw it in when I was buying sfuff I dont need. I almost let the wild yeast have at it but I just couldn't forgive myself if I wasted all that fruit and time. I dont have a press or anything. All I got is a blender, paint strainers, and my mits. That said I worry I should have used something made for fruit. Ahh well time will tell.