Mashing or not mashing, that's the question...

[Garouda]

Do you recommend scalding them in boiled water?

You'll hit two birds with one stone. Get rid of nasties and initiate a kind of gelatinization.

[MooseMan]

I pay approx £9-13 for 20kg sacks of flaked maize here, a little more for other grain.
All from the animal feed stores.

I've been using Torrefied Flaked Corn from Crisp's, bought from my LHBS. I realize I should have gone to the feedstore and saved myself 20 bucks. Do you recommend scalding them in boiled water?

I just setup my mash with very hot water from the condenser and hot backset from the still, leave wrapped up tight until it drops to pitching temp and the YLAY always out competes any other organisms until the end of the ferment.

[Dr Griz]

I realize I should have gone to the feedstore and saved myself 20 bucks. Do you recommend scalding them in boiled water?

Using hot water to pasteurize your feed (or seed) grains is a good idea -- I ran a 30C mash with YL and feedstore grains, and ended up with some pretty funky stuff -- the YL eventually outcompeted, but it'll be a while before that spirit ages enough to be ready for prime time...

As to "scalding," though, remember that all you need to do is pasteurize the grain. I think 63C for 30 minutes is the minimum standard in the food industry, which will also give you some nice gelatinization on most grains. I've found that, with some unmalted grains, you can actually cause yourself some trouble by going too hot -- I try never to get my unmalted rye above 72C, to limit the formation of glucan snot in my mash tun and boiler.

After working my way through a 500g brick of YL, I found that the gee-whiz factor kinda paled over time. I realized I like the process of dialing in the right temps, malts and enzymes to get a good ferment. Mind you, I think it's a great safety net to keep around, for those times that I miss my mark on those temps and get a bad conversion.

[higgins]

...

After working my way through a 500g brick of YL, I found that the gee-whiz factor kinda paled over time. I realized I like the process of dialing in the right temps, malts and enzymes to get a good ferment. Mind you, I think it's a great safety net to keep around, for those times that I miss my mark on those temps and get a bad conversion.

I'm with you, Dr Griz (except that now I use only food grade ingredients).

I too have gone thru a 500g brick of YL and come to a similar conclusion. Last year I did a side by side bourbon - identical grain bills, 1 normal mash, 1 YL. The 2 distillates were quite similar, and are now in badmos. They won't be ready for a final comparison for a couple more years. Until then I'll keep mashing.

BUT ... I used the rest of the YL on 2 batches of white wheat neutral, and 2 batches of Rye whiskey using 100% flaked rye. I like the neutral much better than sugar shine for a gin base, and the two ryes were so easy and show a lot of promise.

I already have another brick in the fridge.

[PalCabral]

After working my way through a 500g brick of YL, I found that the gee-whiz factor kinda paled over time. I realized I like the process of dialing in the right temps, malts and enzymes to get a good ferment. Mind you, I think it's a great safety net to keep around, for those times that I miss my mark on those temps and get a bad conversion.

I think this is what I will do too. Order it and have it as a backup solution when I screw up the mashing.

But I do see a couple of "projects" I would like to do with YL: Rye whiskies where the rye portion would be a 50/50 split between malted rye, which I mash the normal way, and flaked rye, that I only "ferment" with YL. My focus now and over the summer will be Bourbons, but in the fall I was hoping to venture into making Rye whiskies - a Pennsylvania Rye and a Maryland Rye. We'll see,

[PalCabral]

Last year I did a side by side bourbon - identical grain bills, 1 normal mash, 1 YL. The 2 distillates were quite similar, and are now in badmos. They won't be ready for a final comparison for a couple more years. Until then I'll keep mashing.

I am really curious to find out the outcome of that test.