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MR-E wrote:

NcHooch wrote:Not too Bad Mr-E ... especially for your first time .
you'll prolly improve on that as you gain some more experience with the recipe.

Thank's, the first thing I'm gonna do is get a decent cooler, my temp was dropping too fast &
I think I missed out on some conversion as a result.
I'm also gonna get some ale yeast for the next batch.
How do you like the recipe with the rye in it, compared to the original recipe
Also, are you stirring the mash during the fermentation or letting nature do its job

Cheers

I like it both ways ... but adding a pound of malted rye brings in a slightly spicy note and adds to the complexity.
I don't stir the mash during the ferment , 7-9 days and it's ready to go ...try and keep it as close to room temp as possible.

So here we go....

21lbs cracked corn
9lbs malted barley

We got her cooked down and the barley added so far. We're 146F and holding.

Should I put some yeast in warm water with a handful of sugar to pitch this afternoon?

muslhound wrote:So here we go....

21lbs cracked corn
9lbs malted barley

We got her cooked down and the barley added so far. We're 146F and holding.

Should I put some yeast in warm water with a handful of sugar to pitch this afternoon?

...as long as the temp is below 90F you should be good to go.
that must've been quite a chore stirring 21 pounds of cracked corn.

You got that right. My shoulders are sore. So far so good. It smells sweet and is real sticky. I just put it in the fermentation bucket and topped it off to 20 gallons. It's been hot so cooling is taking a long time. What kind of yield should i expect? What can i do to maximize yield? Should i make a sour mash and what are the steps?

muslhound wrote:What kind of yield should i expect? What can i do to maximize yield? Should i make a sour mash and what are the steps?

typical yield for the recipe is 5%, so you're looking at about 3 quarts....mashing at 145F should minimize the unfermentables, and max out the fermentable sugars , that should help the yield (for next time).

As far as sour mash, just substitute 25% of your corn-cooking water with backset, and you're sourmashin ! Everything else is the same.

*optional - If you want, you can add a lil beano (we'll look the other way)for additional conversion...and let it continue to mash overnight.

Question: What is beano?

beano is a enzyme that you take to prevent gas it brakes higher sugars down into simple sugars

O.K, I managed to get approx 18ltrs of wash from the grain from a total volume of 26ltrs.
It fermented in 7 days & then I let it sit for a week, syphoned off the cleared liquid from the top
& strained the rest from the grain through a home made strainer, I didn't take a F.G reading
I ran it dirty, single run through my plated column & got 750mls @ 92% after making cuts.
NcHooch, I'll have to ask you look the other way again
I don't have any American Oak sticks & wasn't confident in charring oak chips, so I toasted them instead
& now have 1.1ltrs @ 63% on toasted American Oak chips
I followed the recipe & advice on this thread & everything has gone smoothly & I'm confident I'll be having
a merry x-mas
Thank you for sharing this recipe.

Cheers

hi all. was making my first run of this tonight and while it was mashing for about an hour i didnt put the lid on tight and the temp fell to 138f so i turned the heat back on. while i was waiting for it warm back to 145ish my dog thew up and i had to clean it up before she ate it and when i looked up the temp was at 165 so i poured some cold water in it to get the temp to 145ish. my question is did i screw it up if the temp went over 155 for about 5 minutes or should it be okay?

MR-E wrote:O.K, I managed to get approx 18ltrs of wash from the grain from a total volume of 26ltrs.
It fermented in 7 days & then I let it sit for a week, syphoned off the cleared liquid from the top
& strained the rest from the grain through a home made strainer, I didn't take a F.G reading
I ran it dirty, single run through my plated column & got 750mls @ 92% after making cuts.
NcHooch, I'll have to ask you look the other way again
I don't have any American Oak sticks & wasn't confident in charring oak chips, so I toasted them instead
& now have 1.1ltrs @ 63% on toasted American Oak chips
I followed the recipe & advice on this thread & everything has gone smoothly & I'm confident I'll be having
a merry x-mas
Thank you for sharing this recipe.

Cheers

lol, I 'magine it ought to be pretty good by then. Merry Xmas Mr-E !
...Now get back to work so you can put some away for 2 years.

danmiz wrote:hi all. was making my first run of this tonight and while it was mashing for about an hour i didnt put the lid on tight and the temp fell to 138f so i turned the heat back on. while i was waiting for it warm back to 145ish my dog thew up and i had to clean it up before she ate it and when i looked up the temp was at 165 so i poured some cold water in it to get the temp to 145ish. my question is did i screw it up if the temp went over 155 for about 5 minutes or should it be okay?

Dan,
thats one of those moments where you'd wanna have some iodine handy to check for starch (at the end of your mashing session.
exactly how far into the mashing did this happen? ...an hour or so? you may have denatured some of the alphas, which would leave some unfermentable sugars . If that was my mash, I'd crush up 3-4 Beano tabs and pitch 'em with the yeast ( I woulda let the dog eat the vomit too) . lol
In the future, make sure and kill the heat if you need to step away.

Thanks nhooch. I happened about an hour in and I added some amylase enzyme when I added my malted barley and rye. My sg was 1050 and is bubbling away. Thanks for recipe!

danmiz wrote:Thanks nhooch. I happened about an hour in and I added some amylase enzyme when I added my malted barley and rye. My sg was 1050 and is bubbling away. Thanks for recipe!

Sounds like you made out OK .

So I'm finally back in town and have been all hot and bothered to try my frst all grain (or any mash for that matter). Got my corn but having a real bugger of a time finding malted barley either 2 or 6 row. Lots of brew shops have LME and wonder if I can substiutute understanding to stay away from hopped LME? Everything I've read on other posts seems like I can but wonder what NCHooch's opinion is on this and what ratio?

I've found dry barley at a feed store and have seen a few methods of malting it myself but don't think I want to try this (bears in the backyard, especially this time of year) and would prefer to find the already dry malted barley. Any tips?

good labor day weekend early to all who read.. i have just a very few questions as i prepare myself to very shortly attrempt my first all grain.. i have run sweet feed to the tune of 8 or nine generations and then to the urging of my brother in law who wanted more corn taste i switched to ujssm.. and have been met with rave reviews from all who have tasted either my clear or flavors or a neat little product that is six months old .. i used sweetfeed recipe all hearts added toasted not charred american white oak 2 drops of cinnamon oil and a cinnamon bark stick put it in my closet and forgot about it... oh my what a wonderful product...its now proofed to 90 and in a corked serving decanter...just in time for the cool evenings of septemeber and early october if it lasts that long..

now to the root of my questions.. first i have developed a nice strong tasty strain of yeast with this ujssm it started with red star bakers but over the last 4 months has multiplied and laid down a nice bed.. do i gently remove the grain from this bed and capture a pint jar of these tasty creatures and refrigerate as i prepare my first batch of nc hooch?

as for the actual production of nc hooch ? i plan on 14# crushed corn 6# 6 row malted barley and 2# malted rye.. cooking the corn in appx 8 gallons of good "wild" water (no city water for me)...per the instructions in recipe.. allow to cool to 150 add barley and rye ... leave for minimum of 2 hours stirring every 15 min or so ... heres my question, i mash in coolers ... can i add appx 4 gallon of water to bring it to yeast pitch temp and add my retaained yeast from the last 4 months?

thanks for any input and or direction as i do not claim to know much..

Bubba Q wrote:So I'm finally back in town and have been all hot and bothered to try my frst all grain (or any mash for that matter). Got my corn but having a real bugger of a time finding malted barley either 2 or 6 row. Lots of brew shops have LME and wonder if I can substiutute understanding to stay away from hopped LME? Everything I've read on other posts seems like I can but wonder what NCHooch's opinion is on this and what ratio?

I've found dry barley at a feed store and have seen a few methods of malting it myself but don't think I want to try this (bears in the backyard, especially this time of year) and would prefer to find the already dry malted barley. Any tips?

hEY Bubba,
LME is no substitute for malted barley , you need the diastic power of the malt to convert the corn starch to sugar, and LME has no diastic power.
you may need to mail-order it if nobody has it close-bye.

likkerupfront wrote:
as for the actual production of nc hooch ? i plan on 14# crushed corn 6# 6 row malted barley and 2# malted rye.. cooking the corn in appx 8 gallons of good "wild" water (no city water for me)...per the instructions in recipe.. allow to cool to 150 add barley and rye ... leave for minimum of 2 hours stirring every 15 min or so ... heres my question, i mash in coolers ... can i add appx 4 gallon of water to bring it to yeast pitch temp and add my retaained yeast from the last 4 months?

thanks for any input and or direction as i do not claim to know much..

Hey Likker,
Ya, that sounds like it should work just fine just like you wrote it. (although I have my doubts that the 4 gals of cold is going to get it to pitching temp). I often times put it in a fermenter bucket (covered) and point a fan at it to get it down to pitching temp.

LME or DME won't convert the corn, so it's a no-go.

Deal with the bears.... A 22 short in the gut will get the message across just fine, and won't even alert the neighbors...

thanks for the reply hooch i think im going to move forward by ordering a 50# sack of 6 row malted barley and 16# of malted rye.. my ultimate goal with this is to make a run of lower yield HIGH quality holiday drink and piggyback a sugar with the grain and yeast for 2 generations then an all grain and 2 piggybacks... this summer of lemonade, sangria made from strawberry breeze and pineapple, and several family functions have destroyed my stockpile..

i look forward to trying this all grain journey as all i can read tells me the flavors are wonderful and of a higher quality than what can be obtained from a sugar head ... only problem is if it gets much better i may just have to quit my day job...

Hmmmm....

I was going to run my first wash today...

My eleven gallons of wash has been fermenting for one week with some Nottingham Ale yeast. It's still bubbling away actually... but gravity is only down from 1.071 to 1.030.

Normally I ferment in the un-air-conditioned portion of the garage (around 85 degrees). I wasn't thinking and have had the fermenter sitting in the air-conditioned workshop at 70 degrees. I'm thinking the cooler temps have provided for a slower fermentation time period.

So I'm going to move the fermenter to the warmer part of the garage and hope that this will finish fermenting out soon.

qball wrote:Hmmmm....

I was going to run my first wash today...

My eleven gallons of wash has been fermenting for one week with some Nottingham Ale yeast. It's still bubbling away actually... but gravity is only down from 1.071 to 1.030.

Normally I ferment in the un-air-conditioned portion of the garage (around 85 degrees). I wasn't thinking and have had the fermenter sitting in the air-conditioned workshop at 70 degrees. I'm thinking the cooler temps have provided for a slower fermentation time period.

So I'm going to move the fermenter to the warmer part of the garage and hope that this will finish fermenting out soon.

Nottingham should ferment fairly complete in a week. How long has it been?

Thx NCHooch!

It's been a week, I still see bubbling decently in the surface (not just normal suspended CO2). I've moved it in the garage where it's about 12 degrees warmer (82 versus 70) and will monitor it the next couple of days to see if we are making some progress.

This is the first time I've used an Ale yeast versus a distiller's yeast in a whiskey wash, so I wasn't sure what to expect time wise.

I've obviously used Ale yeast in tradtional beer, but have been starting with gravity of 1.060 or below and finish in 4-5 days to a target of 1.012 or so.

I was just wondering if the extra time it's taking was a combination of the higher OG, the more fermentable sugars available and the 70-degree fermentation temp.

I ended up talking a heaping teaspoon of DAP and dissolving it in cup of boiled and cooled distiller water.

Between the warmer temp and the DAP, the fermentation picked up and I'm down to 1.010... I'm going to let it finish and clear and then distill.

Thanks,

Q

Hard to believe you'd need DAP to finish off an all-grain wash ...long as it finishes tho , right?

Yeah, I don't know either. It was pretty much a stuck ferment. Perhaps it was a fluke, bad yeast pack, something wrong in my process...

I'll do batch #2 and see how this one goes.

Yeah, I don't know either. It was pretty much a stuck ferment. Perhaps it was a fluke, bad yeast pack, something wrong in my process... However I measured PH levels throughout the process and iodine test and SG were all good. I'm an experienced beer brewer, so at least have some decent knowledge to go by.

I'll do batch #2 and see how this one goes.

I successfully distilled 1.8 gallons (out of my 10 gallons of wash) of low wines from about 63% down to 20%.

I used 25% backset to make a new batch that is currently mashing overnight and I'll start fermentation tomorrow!

I put my second mash of this on two days ago. Used 10lb corn, 8lb 2-row malt, about 2gal of backset from batch one and another 5gal of water. I pitched the yeast that settled off the wash after I screeen-filtered the first batch, it took off like a rocket! I was worried that it would go over the side of my fermentor but its done OK. I got an SG of 1.060, its starting to slow down now so I'll check gravity when its done. I'm hoping for 1.010.

I cooked my corn longer on this batch and it seemed to get more gelatinized than the first attempt, looked like a BOP of creamed corn when it was done.

One thing I'd throw out, I'm using 2-row right now because its what I have on hand. I do think that our modern 2-row malt has almost as high an enzyme concentration as 6-row. I did just order a sack of 6-row though, as well as a sack of unmalted rye.

tom sawyer wrote:I put my second mash of this on two days ago. Used 10lb corn, 8lb 2-row malt, about 2gal of backset from batch one and another 5gal of water. I pitched the yeast that settled off the wash after I screeen-filtered the first batch, it took off like a rocket! I was worried that it would go over the side of my fermentor but its done OK. I got an SG of 1.060, its starting to slow down now so I'll check gravity when its done. I'm hoping for 1.010.

I cooked my corn longer on this batch and it seemed to get more gelatinized than the first attempt, looked like a BOP of creamed corn when it was done.

One thing I'd throw out, I'm using 2-row right now because its what I have on hand. I do think that our modern 2-row malt has almost as high an enzyme concentration as 6-row. I did just order a sack of 6-row though, as well as a sack of unmalted rye.

All I use on my allgrains is 2 row. I can get it cheap by the 50lb bag and use 3lbs 2 row with 6lbs corn and 1lbs rye without any problems.

Just took a whiff of one of my gallon jugs after only 5-days and it smells sooo good. And these are only low wines.

I should be able run Batch #2 this weekend and I'll have just shy of 4 gallons of low wines.

I'll do one more smaller batch and run that and then I'll have enough for my spirit run and into my new Gibbs barrel.

And then the wait...