My journey so far....

[Daz]

Im new and a novice, i got myself a Vevor 2 pot 30l still (yes i know most of the experienced people here say they are shit but you got to start somwhere). Anyway i started out with a few basic sugar washes and then a brown sugar/golden syrup wash for a rough rum distillate. Through this new journey ive been learning about cuts, stripping runs, aging and flavouring etc. Where i did stripping runs i was getting 80% ABV outputs from 40% ABV low wines which i was quite happy about. My next project was a Buccaneer Bob rum recipe, which introduced me to home made yeast nutrients and dundar for my future BB rum iterations. Ok so now we get to the good part, my first grain mash. I decided i wanted to go with a mainly barely based mash, 4 kg kibbled barley, 1kg kibbled maize, i toasted about half the barley in the hopes of getting a more complex flavor. Boiled it, added the amaylise enzyme. I took a gravity reading and it said 1.000 which i discounted as being erroneous, added my Still Spirits yeast and it seemed to be happily fermenting for about 2 days. Took a gravity reading 10 days later 1.010 then down to 1.000 on day 13. Strained the mash and started the distillation run and got 20% ABV at the tap. At this stage i realised i had f@#ked up and probably not done work on the grains to release the sugars. Two choices, chuck it out or try and save it.......i ended up splitting the wash into 2 batches inuding the grain mash, added 2kg sugar to each, split a 150gm turbo golden yeast between the 2 batches, gravity reading was 1.070 for each. Waited 5 days gravity reading was 1.000 for each. Stripped both batches yeilding 40% - 15% ABV low wines. Today i did the spirit run, adding 2.25l of high ABV feints from another neutral run to the wash to get it up to 40% ABV. The spirit run produced about 4 litres in the high 70s before dropping off to mid 60s and then a sharp drop off to mid 30 down to 15% ABVs. The transition from hearts to tails has a very nice sweet almost chocolate molasses note to it. The cuts, based off taste (watered to 40%) seem to have some promising flavours. Learnt a lot on this one and i think i made the right decision in splitting the mash/wash and adding sugar. Ill be taking my learnings into the next mash .

[Dr Griz]

Welcome to the rabbit hole!

All grain washes are a whole new level -- good on you for trying it so soon! There are a lot of reasons why a mash doesn't cooperate, but I think that the two most common are (1) not letting the starches gelatinize, and (2) denaturing your endogenous enzymes or adding exogenous enzymes at the wrong temperature. I have no experience with kibbled barley, but a picture from the internet suggest that it might be a bit to coarse a grind, which would require a longer soak and cook to gelatinize. And, if you tossed in your amylase before cooling below 168F, you could have denatured it.

But it's a good plan to save it with a sugar addition. I hope you find the hiccup in your mash protocol quickly!

[Daz]

Thank you for replying Dr Griz. Ive got 5kgs of malted grain arriving this week for my next experiement. The whole Rum thing really intrigues me though, so ill pobably put down another BB recipe now that i have some dundar. Going to try and move away from the turbo yeasts and try some angel yeast aswell. Ill do a few more distillations with the Vevor and might upgrade to a bettwr pot still or reflux still once ive done a bit more reading and research.
Ciao for now.

[Bradster68]

Be careful of to high temps. I don't believe kibbled barley is malted? So you won't get much sugar there. But could be wrong.
Either way it shouldn't have been boiled.
The maize probably needed some alpha to help convert then some glucoamylase at the correct temperature. If you are using malted grain you should be adding them at 150, no higher. Then hold your temp at 145 to 148 until you get a startch test that proves conversion.
Keep going and keep reading. Your on your way,but missing some key points.
And take notes, I have a binder full of notes.
I look back at old notes compared to new ones and chuckle sometimes.
Good luck

[Daz]

Hi Bradster68 no the barley and maize was not malted. Dont boil? ok rogerwilco. Ive just received 5kg of malted grain for my next fermintation ill make sure i get the temperatures right going forward. Thanks for the response.

[MooseMan]

You seem to be going in the right direction Daz, regardless of a few hiccups.
And anyway, mistakes are just a learning opportunity.

Have a good read through the "No mash No Sugar" thread and the other YLAY threads, and you might find that to be a good alternative for your all grain experiments, I do.

And I can highly recommend the SBB Rum as a good recipe and result, maybe try it side by side with the BB you are planning, and see what you think?

Enjoy the ride man, it's a long and interesting one!

Edited: auto correct madness

[NormandieStill]

Welcome. That's a good introduction. And well done for attempting AG this early on.

This section of the forum is for saying hi and not for asking questions so if you've got specific questions then you should post them in the appropriate parts of the forum. That said I think that reading the recipe for UJSSM and doing some googling for "mashing grains" would rapidly get you going on AG mashes. Good luck and keep at it.

[SW_Shiner]

Welcome, all grain mashes are fantastic and fun, check out Jimbos Wheated Bourbon or Booners Casual All Corn for plenty of great tip and tricks with all grain, and Teddysads No Mash, No Sugar thread for info on YLAY mashes.