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If you know someone with a baby or really young kids... Tylenol and Advil bottles come with a dosing syringe which makes it really easy to measure small amounts like that. Parents will often have a few unused syringes lying around unless they throw them out every time. I think I personally have a junk drawer with about 5 or 6 of them in there.

Aaron

Bohunk wrote:how do you measure 2ml

Bohunk, I use about 3/4 teaspoon of liquid enzymes for every 10 pounds of grain, and then round up. So, for a 50 pound grain bill I would figure 5 x 3/4 = 3.75 tsp, so I use 4 tsp. With larger batches, you can use tablespoons, 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons.

I like to ferment on the grain, too, because I think it adds to the flavor of the finished spirit, gets a little better yield, and I think it is easier to strain out the liquid as alcohol rather than sugars. You have to strain it at some point, either before or after ferment, so I just think it's as easy to do it after. But either way works fine, do what works best for you. Full steam ahead is the best way to go, good luck and Godspeed!

Thanks guys, I stopped at WallyWorld this morning and got a measuring syringe, didn't know they had such things. Took my BOP keg to the welding shop this morning to have a little work done on it, then I'm ready to roll.
MichiganCornhusker, you are going to have to decide this weekend, is it Michigan or is it Cornhusker ??? Me I'm a Husker to the bone....

The Ole Bohunk

Bohunk wrote:MichiganCornhusker, you are going to have to decide this weekend, is it Michigan or is it Cornhusker ???

Ha, so true! I may have been a little to literal minded when I got all excited and picked that name. Gonna have to submit name change request for one weekend: MichiganSpartan.

I use enzymes now all the time. I have read on this forum that commercial distillers also do the same. I have to tell you that their use has greatly reduced my sacchrification expenses as compared to using malt. Don't get me wrong here, I still use malt because of the flavoring aspect-just not as much. I initially bought alpha and glucose enymes from Mile High. Their guidelines promulgated a ten percent decrease per year in strength when refrigerated. I've found that this is a realistic expectation. I'm not sure about malt costs around the world, but they are ridiculous here due to the beer brewing hobby that has taken hold. When I can buy corn for $8.00 for 50lbs., it only makes sense to make corn based alcohol, and enzymes are an inexpensive way achieve that.

Absolutely right the 4oz bottles replace over 80#s of malt.

Can't agree more. I really enjoy the flavor of rye malt. But for me to get it costs about 2bux a pound where I am. So I use corn in conjunction with the malt and enzymes to get the most out of my malt. I have found a drink that I really enjoy and at a cost that doesn't break the bank!

Well I've been playing with these things and I'm finding I can hit from 1.048-1.078 by cooking the grains like in pints video, by adding the grain and enzymes to cold water heating to 190*f and hold an hour at temp then then adding the amyl at 160*f and holding an hour. Getting the starches free of the grains is the key in my opinion then it's all smooth sailing.

SoMo wrote:Getting the starches free of the grains is the key in my opinion then it's all smooth sailing.

I agree, I think getting the max performance from the SebStar HTL is key.

I just finished up an experiment with the Sebstar enzymes. I used 100% cracked corn from tractor supply.

I apologize for how confusing this might be. I couldn't really come up with a better way to present it.

I wound up doing 5 separate mashes as follows:

Cracked corn, right out of the bag, 2lbs/1gallon water. Got OG 1.056
Corn ground to meal, 2lbs/1 gallon water. Got OG 1.072
For both of these, I added 2 tablespoons Calcium Carbonate to each to raise pH to just above 5.0 for the High Temp, then added 3 tablespoons lemon juice to each to lower to about pH 4.5 for SebAmyl.

Cracked corn, right out of the bag, 3lbs/1 gallon water. Got OG 1.044
Corn ground to meal, 3lbs/1 gallon water. Got OG 1.080
For both of these I added about 1 tablespoon Calcium Carbonate to each. I don't think it quite raised the pH above 5, more like 4.7 for the High Temp, but I ran out of calcium. Did not add lemon juice before SebAmyl.

Ground up the rest of the bag, mashed at about 2.5lbs corn/1 gallon water. No pH adjust at any time, but was just under 5. Got OG 1.062

In every case, when I added the boiling water to the corn, temp dropped well below 170F. I put each batch back in the pot and brought it up to 190F, stirring continuously.
I let this sit overnight and next day temps were around 130F. Added SebAmyl and brought temps up to 150F in each case then left for another 6 hrs.

The results from the cracked corn at different ratios seem to really show the importance of managing the pH. Especially with the SebStar HTL. I think because I didn't get the pH up to at least 5.5 I got really crappy OG on even a 3/1 ratio of cracked corn right out of the bag. Adding more corn to get the 3/1 ratio also drops the pH further, so just adding more corn doesn't seem to really help the situation if pH isn't managed.

The upside of all this is that now I have 50# of corn mashed and fermenting.

Thread resurrection, sorry. I like the experiment Michigan. One of the things I noted using SebAmyl/Sebstar is that they keep working. I use ale yeast just because I have it, but the yeast only attenuates so far, so typically you'll end up 1.006 to 1.010 at end of ferment. Using these enzymes, I am seeing below 1.00. They just keep on eating. Good stuff.

For a 5gal and 10gal corn mash, how much sebstar and sebamyl do you use?

CRACKERCREEK wrote:For a 5gal and 10gal corn mash, how much sebstar and sebamyl do you use?

0.36 ml/lb

Great! Thanks!

Consolidated all the Seb specs for easy reference:
[tr][td]SEBstar HTL[/td] [td]0.36ml/lb (0.8ml/kg)[/td] [td]pH 5.6-6.5[/td] [td]122-194F (50-90C)[/td][/tr] [tr][td]SEBamyl GL[/td] [td]0.36ml/lb (0.8ml/kg)[/td] [td]pH 2.8-5.5[/td] [td]86-149F (30-65C)[/td][/tr] [tr][td]SEBflo TL[/td] [td]0.23ml/lb (0.5ml/kg)[/td] [td]pH 4.0-6.5[/td] [td]86-140F (30-60C)[/td][/tr]

Thanks 3d0g. I saved the table for future reference.

I only use sebstar and sebamyl should I be using others as well?

CRACKERCREEK wrote:I only use sebstar and sebamyl should I be using others as well?

SEBflo is a glucanase enzyme. It's typically just used for rye and wheat.

In addition to the others or is this specifically used for all wheat and all rye recipes

3d0g wrote:

CRACKERCREEK wrote:I only use sebstar and sebamyl should I be using others as well?

SEBflo is a glucanase enzyme. It's typically just used for rye and wheat.

In addition to the others or is this specifically used for all wheat and all rye recipes

3d0g wrote:

CRACKERCREEK wrote:I only use sebstar and sebamyl should I be using others as well?

SEBflo is a glucanase enzyme. It's typically just used for rye and wheat.

Would SEBflo thin a corn or wheat mash enough for a lauter tun to be used ?

CRACKERCREEK wrote:In addition to the others or is this specifically used for all wheat and all rye recipes

In addition. SEBflo breaks down beta glucans during the mash.

shadylane wrote: Would SEBflo thin a corn or wheat mash enough for a lauter tun to be used ?

No significant beta glucans in corn so SEBflo won't help much there. Corn thins within seconds of the SEBstar addition anyway. Lautering requires husks for the filter bed, of course so one still needs malt or rice hulls in the mix.

On another thread Woodshed said that his manifold works with corn. I wish he would weigh in with some more detail on that. Before I had enzymes I had terrible problems trying to cook and lauter corn, never worked. However now after adding SEBstar it does turn very liquidy and easy to stir. I am tempted to try again. But I might put a coarse grain bag in the kettle before I add the corn. So it would be grain on top of bag on top of manifold (mine is copper) inside the kettle.

These things are EXCELLENT! Thank you for the post. I had no idea it could be this easy to do a good mash. I picked mine set up from SchnappStills website for $22 shipped. Cheapest I have found them so far...
Says the 4oz bottles do 315#! I wasnt sure how long these would last so i called to double check. 2 year shelf life if kept in conditions of indirect UV light and 60F or under Once again this site rocks!

Hi, could someone post the list of ingredients in SEBstar and SEBAmyl GL? I'd like to compare it with powdered enzymes that I found here. What I need is the concentration, number of units of enzyme per ml of solution. Just to be sure of what is the correct dose of what I got...

thank you

cuginosgrizzo wrote:Hi, could someone post the list of ingredients in SEBstar and SEBAmyl GL? I'd like to compare it with powdered enzymes that I found here. What I need is the concentration, number of units of enzyme per ml of solution. Just to be sure of what is the correct dose of what I got...

thank you

SEBstar HTL is Bacillus licheniformis. Dosage is 200 – 800g/metric ton of starch.
SEBamyl GL is Aspergillus niger. Dosage is 400 – 800 mL/metric ton of starch.

SEB has never published actual product concentrations, to my knowledge. You could give 'em a call. Always found them VERY helpful on the phone.

This is by far my weakest area in the hobby. Hoping to also get some great information this year at the ADI conference.

Bushman, I think it seems weak, but isn't. The enzymes are just that simple! About the only thing that can be screwed up is to use at too high a temp and denature them.

Probably just have never done it. Always used 100% malted grain.

Bushman in my hiatus I've been using these extensively and have had great results with them even doing a 5 grain that just knocks your socks off in depth of flavor and mouth feel. The biggest kicker is just paying attention to ph at the right times, SG's seem to vary depending on sources of grains and how recently they've been milled.
I even use them with malt as it makes the long cook times of corn so much easier. Persistence pays.