BIAB Brew in a bag? NO Bourbon In A Bag...

[Garouda]

BIAB, Bourbon In A Bag

0 sculpture BIAB.jpg

Ingredients[/b]
Some malts were intended for a beer recipe, but I took them by mistake (cara gold and abbey malt), next time I'll take 8 kg of base malt…
The grain is cracked in my electric (1500W) mill.
15 kg corn
5 kg Chateau Pilsner 2 rws barley malt Castle Malting
1 kg Chateau Abbey Malt (EBC 45)
1 kg Chateau Cara Gold Malt (EBC 120)
1kg chateau pale ale malt
1kg rye malt
1 kg whole wheat flour
1kg brown cane sugar
Final batch size 75 litres.

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Now that you’ve cracked open your corn and barley, it’s time to get them cooking. Follow the steps below to brew your corn.
The method where you boil your corn and add barley for starch conversion works well if you're working with small quantities or have industrial equipment to stir a huge lump of polenta.
I do not have such an equipment, hence the need for an alternate solution.
There are two materials requiring different handling T°, so let's divide the process into two phases

Phase one boiling the corn, starch conversion using alpha amylase and gluco amylase, sparge,press and discard the spent grain.
Phase two mashing the other cereals the classic way.

1.Boiling the corn

1. Bring 60 litres of water into the pot and heat it to 93℃
2. Pour 15 kg of cracked corn into the pot. 
3. Stir every 5 minutes

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4. Allow the gelatinization process to occur.
After about 30 minutes, you have a large mass of polenta, you cannot not even stir it, so do not dream of stirring barley malt…
2.Starch Conversion 1
5. Take a large sauce pan, bring 10 litres of water to the T° of 75°C.
6. When the T° is at 72°C add 1.5 tsp of Alpha Amylase. Poor it evenly on your 'polenta', Alpha Amylase ideal T° is 70°C (*)
You should have a quick release and liquefaction.
7. Rest at 70°C for 20 minutes.
8. Take a large sauce pan, bring 5 litres of water to the T° of 65°C
9. Add 1.5 tsp of Gluco Amylase when the T° is at 65°C, and add it to your wort, Gluco Amylase ideal T° is 62°C (*)
10. Stir and rest at 62°C for 80 minutes.
11. Stir every 10–15 minutes and ensure the temperature doesn’t drop below 55℃.  
Look at my picture and notice how I hoist my basket and the bag with the corn, it's very heavy...

4 hoisting corn spent grain.jpg

12. Sparge your corn with +/- 10 litres of hot water (65℃).  
When the basket is above wort level, I place the gym ball and the necessary accessories to make my pneumatic press
See pictures, this is a 'beta' release, it was a trial, and it works, I have now to improve the design.
.

5 pneumatic press.jpg

The second time, with the barley mash, I made some modifications and it was about perfect.
How to remove the basket, some logistics...

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To be followed...

[Garouda]

Now with a little help of my friend the wheelbarrow...

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Remove and discard your spent grain, see pictures

8 spent grain.jpg

(*) Remark: you may have to/be able to apply different T° depending upon the types of amylases you can find.

3. Mashing the barley and other cereals (Rye-Wheat)
1. Heat the corn wort to 62℃
2. Pour 10 kg of cracked cereals mix into the pot (80% barley malt... )
3. Stir every 5 minutes, it's easy compared to corn polenta...
4. Rest at 62°C for 80 minutes.
5. Heat the mash to 72℃
6. Rest at 70°C for 15 minutes.
7. Hoist the basket and the bag with the spent grain, it's not as heavy as the corn full of water...
8. Sparge your spent grain with hot water (78℃).  
9. Open your gas to bring the wort to boil.
10. Repeat the pneumatic press process, and discard the spent grain…
11. When the wort is boiling, turn of the burner and let it cool down, I have a counter flow chiller, but I'll leave it overnight and let it cool down naturally.

4. Fermentation

Follow these steps to ferment your wort.

Yeast Starter

Making a yeast starter allows viable cells to multiply, helping kickstart fermentation. 
1.take 1 litre of wort
2.Add 150 g of instant baker's yeast
3.Aerate well with a whisk
4.Let it start, keep an eye on it, it's a quick start (see picture)

9 yeast starter.jpg

5.Add the yeast to your fermenter as soon as T° < 35°C, aerate well with a large whisk, I do not use any aquarium air pump any more…
I do not use any airlock, the fermentation quickly releases CO2, heavier than air and forming a protection layer above the wort
We notice some Krausen which is typical for a beer, and it has a nice smell too. Wait and see...

some Krausen and already a nice beer smell.jpg

[Garouda]

I made a second batch and in total I got some 15 litres I diluted to 55%ABV, currently ageing with some old Scottish vat pieces of oak a friend of mine brought from Scotland. The smell is nice. I'm going to taste it end of the month.
Next season (from October-November) I'm going to try Corn plus sticky rice that I get for free, my wife's growing rice. Malted Barley is ten times more expensive than corn, so I'll try to make a 'local style' Bourbon like stuff by adding some malted Barley, whole wheat flour, malted Rye, rolled oat (I forgot to mention it in my above-mentioned recipe), +/-60% Corn, +/-30% rice and the remaining being other cereals and cane sugar as above.

ageing REDUX.jpg

[Yonder]

Thanks for the great write up. Sounds like quite an interesting experiment. Glad you were able to measure and identify the ingredients. A while back my local HBS would sell 10 lb bags of milled grain “leftovers” for $5. He knew that I made “corn beer” so he always ensured I got sacks that were high in diastatic power. Made good product but each was an unknown and each different.