Home Distiller

Hi, Honest.

Without agreeing with you all the way, I certainly see where you are coming from.
From family experience.

Geoff

The Brute fermenter is working in the basement as we speak, and the living room is still devoid of fermentation. The kitchen sees a lot of action though.

Honest, never underestimate the power of a backrub, and 10 years isn't a very long time. When things are good, it's a blink of an eye.

Right on fellas. I got really lucky and I know when to pull back from being a total selfish jerk, and focus on her. I think the real thing we got is that we are both willing to work together and compromise when necessary. Arguments are almost always immediately ended with one initiating an apology and the other party also apologizing.

Regarding fermenting in the living room, which is next to the kitchen: we're both fast approaching our limit with having this stuff here. This last batch of 44 gallons (which was hell to prepare with my current setup), will be the second to last (gumballhead after) and then we're building our my brew/distilling room in the basement furnace room at the end of next season of it goes as planned.

Natural gas burner with vent directly out window, wash tub with hot and cold water, pulley and stainless steel biab cylinder, and a 50 gallon fermenter with new 26 gallon still with 6" column. I only have a few months a year to get all my stilling in because once I start up the irrigation season is 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

Then I'll be able to tackle these large batches more efficiently. My current setup requires too much effort and time

Also, I can't wait to try this method of easy large batching, but at the same time I don't want to ferment on the grains anymore because of the PITA of the mop wringer

Alright - a technical question on using enzymes. In the earlier post, SCD wraps the fermenter after adding and mixing the water, corn, and enzymes all together. I've been doing that as well - I have an old army sleeping bag that fits right over the fermenter. But is this necessary? Is there something to be gained by letting the corn sit for 90 minutes or more, or could one immediately chill the stuff right down to strike temp and add sebamyl, and then let it sit a spell to let the enzyme do its magic? It looks like the conversion with HTL is darn near instantaneous - are more and more starches becoming available during the wait and the grain cooks?

The corn needs some time to soak up the water and gelatinize. Mine keeps temp for hours and i’ll let it sit overnight till it’s down to 150 for malts. I take the laid back route and don’t crash it. It’s a weekend job and takes me a couple days including the starter in a 5 gallon bucket for the pitch Sunday night or Monday morning.

Cheers!
-j

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:26 am The corn needs some time to soak up the water and gelatinize. Mine keeps temp for hours and i’ll let it sit overnight till it’s down to 150 for malts. I take the laid back route and don’t crash it. It’s a weekend job and takes me a couple days including the starter in a 5 gallon bucket for the pitch Sunday night or Monday morning.

Cheers!
-j

I second this approach. It's almost identical to what I do. I just don't do starters because I'm lazy and I've never had an infection or lack of complete ferment. YMMV, of course

I've got to change something I'm doing. Every other strip has started in the low 70's for initial collection.
This first large batch recipe I just made read at 6.5% and I had two 24 gallon fermenters filled to at least 22 gallons each. Now, the grains displaced a ton, between 1/3 and 1/2 the buckets. I used a mop wringer today and only produced 28 gallons, leaving about 2-3" grain bed for my gumballhead.

This is taking off at 55% with a fully copper scrubber packed column. (But the parrot in the garage is trying 45%, 55 in the kitchen with a glass tube and the proofing hydrometer).

It is probably 35°F in my garage and I used the same Copper packing but instead I stretched out so it's looser but filled up the full 2' column.

I'm very disappointed that after all this time and energy I'm going to produce very little product. I am stripping harder than I have in the past since I've got at least two of these strips today and the takeoff didn't occur until 11:15am.

I dunno. This sucks. I need to build a centrifugal separator or something. All this effort isn't worth 28 gallons of maybe 7% from 80 pounds of grain.

I thought I could expect 40 gallons worth of wash and be able to charge my spirit run with at least 7-8 gallons. Ain't no way that's going to happen

Not even 2 gallons of ethanol theoretically from what I've made. That seems incredibly low and incorrect, especially considering the iodine test read properly and it fermented to 1.000

Not even an hour later, with a full 12 gallon charge in my 16 gallon kettle, I've dropped down to 40% and that's the third quart. WTF?! This is so aggravating I don't even know what to think about this.

If the iodine test was negative, I suspect that your grains were not fully gelled. You converted everything that was available and it fermented out, but you didn't start with enough available starches.

Expat wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:47 pm If the iodine test was negative, I suspect that your grains were not fully gelled. You converted everything that was available and it fermented out, but you didn't start with enough available starches.

Ahhh.

Could I rerun them through the roller Mill, and then hopefully get a little bit more crack and put them back in the bucket add boiling water and do the whole process over again?

HL,

Poor gelatinization could be the crack on the grain, but it could also simply be the temp and time during the steep. Temps can vary significantly in your barrel, so it is important you mix the water/mash significantly to get a true temp for the entire barrel.

I keep them in a 10 gallon orange cooler from home Depot. Igloo I think.

Then I wrap with blankets and stir occasionally until down, but I added my gluco too high at 155°F, instead of 148°F
I picked up another 50lb sack cracked corn from Murdoch's.

I'm going to Mill thrice... And then probably pull out the grain mill attachment in the kitchenaid on coarsest setting.

I'm going to start with Booner's, but 1.5#/gallon which I'm calculating should be 7% potential ABV, and a 5 gallon wash. I'm gonna do smaller batch attempts to find out what's going on.

Trying this method for the first time today.
2.25 LBS of grain per gallon of water.
70% corn, 16% rye, 14% malted barley.
Looks good so far.
Got it wrapped up in sleeping bags for the night, looks good so far, will be interesting

I just mashed a 50 pound bag on 23 gallon wrapped in blankets for the night figure I'll pitch yeast in the morning or afternoon tomorrow.my new brew kettle. Makes mashing a little easier

Mashed in this morning with another 10x HBB, net 105# , still at 160f. Malts in the morning.

Has anyone found an easier way to get the beer out of the mash than the mop squeegee?

Steam distillation is the obvious way to defer cleaning up the mess but you still need to transfer out of the brute.

tiramisu wrote: ↑Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:00 pm Has anyone found an easier way to get the beer out of the mash than the mop squeegee?

Steam distillation is the obvious way to defer cleaning up the mess but you still need to transfer out of the brute.

Im open to suggestions, but TBH, I dont find it that messy if you squeeze slowly so it doesnt squirt all over. It's more back breaking than it is messy in my opinion.

tiramisu wrote: ↑Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:00 pm Has anyone found an easier way to get the beer out of the mash than the mop squeegee?

Steam distillation is the obvious way to defer cleaning up the mess but you still need to transfer out of the brute.

Ferment it IN the 'steam distillation vessel'.
Drain some of the liquid off and put in the boiler.
Go.

I am setting up a vessel for this, hope to make grappa maybe in a year's time...

Geoff

Well my 50 pounds on 23 gallon is at 104 temp this morning almost ready for yeast

I gave this a go this weekend. Fingers cross worked out. I just did twice because was only doing 30gallon for my first try. Word of advice for anyone else that might not know. Corn holds temp really well. My thermometer was reading 149f so I said time to add the malts. Threw them in and used paint mixer on drill and temp jumped up to 160f. Hoping I still get good conversion but I recommend you stir prior to putting the malts because might actually be little warmer with the grain settling. Live and learn. Super easy method to run large batches for sure.

ddizzle22 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:33 am

Dizzle, for your interest. Results of squeezing my 55g batch of easy large batch mash of HBB.

~40g liquid and 3 bucket of decently dry grain mulch.

Expat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 07, 2021 12:05 pm

ddizzle22 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:33 am

Dizzle, for your interest. Results of squeezing my 55g batch of easy large batch mash of HBB.

~40g liquid and 3 bucket of decently dry grain mulch.
PXL_20210307_194756498_copy_600x800.jpg
PXL_20210307_194200023_copy_639x600.jpg

Wow that's awesome man I have 30g almost done and will he doing similar waiting on my delivery of a mop ringer.

Righto! I love this idea seeing as I am now moving to large batches. I realise this is an old original post so thanks to anyone who returns with a bit of insight and help.
A few questions that I haven't found a lot of clarity on:
What is the easy corn method? What corn are you using? I have access too flaked maize and also a malted maize however both are fairly pricey.
What is the benefit to letting the mash drop to the required temp to add malt, and then letting it naturally drop again to yeast pitching temp? Why not just put an immersion coil in and drop the mash temp faster?
How are you racking off the wort? I am considering a tap at just above the grain bed with a bazooka filter, as well as a syphon hose with a filter on the end.

Also, on the note of large scale ferments, Ive been thinking about doing 3 mashes in my 50l tun and adding it all sequentially to the same fermenter throughout the day.
Once the total volume is in the big blue boy fermenter, it can all be cooled to yeast pitching temp. Can anyone forsee any issues with this idea?

Malthead247 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:35 pm I have access too flaked maize and also a malted maize however both are fairly pricey.

Many people use corn meal or cracked corn. Also, if you can get to a animal feed store they may have steam rolled corn, which is also sometimes called flaked corn. It should only be a couple of dollars more per bag than cracked corn. The nice thing about it is during processing it was held at the temp via a steam chest to gelatinize for a couple of hours.

For corn meal or cracked corn the reason to let it slow cool from boiling to 150 barley mash temp is that it gelatinizes the corn starch so enzymes can break it down to sugar. Rather than boiling the corn for an hour to two you use more time and a lower temp but a lot less work with this method.

I see, this makes a lot of sense. Once the malt has done its conversion of all starches in the mash to sugars, there is nothing however stopping you from fast cooling to pitching temp. I like this!
I imagine with cracked corn, it will be difficult to hold the mash at the 90C required to gelatinize. However if time is on your hands it will be possible to do using this method.
Cracked corn is hella cheap here, and I like the benefit of having easier filtering of cracked instead of flaked. If my SG doesn't work out, I guess theres the option of throwing some sugar in. Ill use some HT enzymes for the aided conversion also. My aim here is to make an affordable, low effort, quality large scale mash to repeat a few times and fill a barrel for maturation.

try to mill the cracked corn finer, it will help with gelatinizing and conversion. you may add malt at correct temp but use the HT enzymes to convert. corn meal filter OK and you can squeeze it quite dry. myself experience better yield with fine maize meal than course ground meal.

That’s pretty much the method I use, too. I do avoid opening the lid however, until it’s time to add malt or enzyme and then not again until yeast goes in. The temps keep lacto at bay till the yeast can take over. Depending on the weather that could easily be 12-15 hrs conversion time where I’m just waiting for the temp to come down. I don’t have a chiller coil.
The mud mixer will easily take down any lumps. Like SCD says, it’s just a HD item. I think it may have been galv steel. It has sort of a dull grey color now but no flake or chip that I could tell.

After a couple of batches I located a bulkhead fitting and valve just above where the mass will settle so that I can pour off the clear liquid more easily after ferment. Tipping the drum gets the last before further recovery from the settled grain mass takes place.
Going all grain was such a drastic improvement to the final product I regret not starting there. It was ultimately easier than I’d have imagined. Heating up that much water is a PITA and propane burner was both slow and thirsty. I’ve finally added an element that goes a bit quicker at 5500w. Plus it’s much quieter.

Indeed, the gains that we’ve made thanks to the ideas and adventures shared here!

With my 5500w element I can do 2 full keg boiler charges in 2.5hrs. I have my keg insulated and I've noticed it definitely helps on the next charge. Electric is definitely the way to do. This method is awesome and if you keep good notes can replicate it everytime. I am using HT enzymes now with my malt as well and noticed alot better results.

This was BIG jump forward . To date I've only made 5 gal batches....LOTS of 5 gal batches. Had a chance to utilize the holiday weekend to finally attempt a large batch. Started milling cracked corn last week until I had 25 lbs ready. Then milled 5 lbs of oats and barley. The 5 lbs of wheat was already cracked nicely.

Friday I started heating the water and by that evening I had all of the corn meal in to gelatinize with some high-temp enzymes. First thing Saturday I stirred the mash and took a temp. Once I hit 150-155F the Alpha-amylase went in followed by the remainder of the grain bill at 145-ish. Let that sit for most of Saturday with the occasional stir until temps dropped to 98-105F. First try with bread yeast as well (up till now all mashes and washes used DADY). I did end up removing about 5 gallons from the 30 gal barrel so there was room for fermentation (underestimated the volume needed for dry goods). On Day 4 now of an extremely active fermentation and the 5 gal bucket is starting to slow down but the barrel is still going strong.