Question about gooey sludge in all rye mash

[RatQueen]

Hello All, I'm new to doing an all grain mash and have a question about what I've observed in my first mash. I have started an all rye mash following the guide available here: https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... d_rye_mash

details:

• I set my mill to 0.025" before milling my rye

• SG was 1.059 for 10 gallons of liquid

• Iodine starch test on cooked mash did not show any purple

• Topped up fermenter to 12 gallons after adding my cooked mash and straining out the solid grains

• After straining grains I squeezed out alot of the remaining liquid in the grains by hand

I noticed a significant amount of a thick gel-like liquid making its way through the colander/seive, but I let it into my fermenter and let it ferment anyways. However, it seems a large amount of this thicker lighter brown liquid has settled to the bottom of my fermenter. About 3 gallons of the total 12 gallons in the fermenter.

Id like to know if this is normal, what it is, and if there is something I should do next time to prevent such a substantial loss in mash volume? I don't really want whatever it is to get cooked into my still when I run it.

If i was to guess maybe its protine, beta glucan carbohydrate, or solids from the rye that didn't get strained out before. I have since racked off what I can into a separate carboy and topped it back up to about 6 gallons with water to hopefully pull some more of the alcohol out when the gel settles again.

liquid.jpg