Home Distiller

I read here that the book I was about to buy (Pure Corn Whiskey by Ian Smiley) is not impressive. Well I would very much love to find a book that is impressive with regards to the following topics;

1) how to optimally convert the corn to sugar so the yeast can feast on the resulting sugar (for all grain recipes)
2) the ins and outs of enzymes with regards to fermenting all grain (mostly corn)
3) getting the most out of your corn the right way (in an all grain recipe...mostly corn)

I know the knowledge I seek is here in this forum but my learning style is geared to reading a book because I find it hard to assemble all the thousands of posts into the focused topic that I now seek.

Please recommend a book or some reading material on the above 3 topics.

Nothing wrong with Smiley's book! Covers a lot of ground. He has some good information in there on basics, (ie., fermentaion, mashing, etc) ...but really...to answer you questions:

1) Practice/experience

2) Each grain is different. For corn..the biggest (most common) issue is getting it "cooked" out...such that the starches are exposed to mash out. Cooking a big ole pot of corn takes time/heat/water/agitation. Rye and oats tend to get gummy..so there are step rests for them at lower temps...to try and break them down the gluten a bit before bringing them up. Most of that will come with experience...how much water to use, what temps to use, etc..

3) what is the "right way"?? Ian used flaked maize (I do as well) and used single infusion mashes. I would differ with Ian..on that..in that in my experience...even "flaked" maize needs to be brought to a boil..and stirred to cool/soak in order to get the full value out of it. Chicken scratch corn (cracked corn) is a different animal. It's usually mostly protein...and will not yield out pound for pound the same. I use the flake maize cause it yeilds better..and it tastes better to me. But, it's 40-50 bucks a a 50lb bag...compared to 11-15 bucks a bag for chicken scratch.

There is nothing wrong with Ian's book. I would definitely recommend you getting it and reading it if you haven't. Just recognize that this is a very subjective endevour. And Ian has his own preferences. Your own experiences..and taste buds..will utlimately guide you.

Here you go, read and then be the judge of whether you want to buy a hard copy - having read extensively here I don't agree with everything he says, it is moderately useful from a practical point of view and somewhat entertaining, i certainly wouldn't pay for a brand new hardcopy to learn the in's and out's from though.

MOD EDIT: The illegal copy of smilies book has been removed. HD is NOT the place for doing this!

Mod's: My apologies - thought it was alright since i got the copy on one the resources threads here a year or so ago. Lesson learned

frozenthunderbolt wrote:Mod's: My apologies - thought it was alright since i got the copy on one the resources threads here a year or so ago. Lesson learned

You wouldn't want a bunch of strangers taking money off your dresser or eating the groceries out of your kitchen while you're off at work would you...??? That's essentially what copyright infringement does - it robs from people who are trying to earn a decent living...

I've been there... I spent many many hours writing copyrighted software to sell in an effort to support my family... The next thing I knew I was getting software support calls from people whom I hadn't sold my software to... I very easily found out that one customer had handed out 30 copies of my software in one evening, which was almost more copies than I had sold to date... Back in those days (80's) software developers had to endure 8 pirated copies for every 1 that they sold... That's only a 12% potential profit due to pirating... In my case the percentage was much lower and it put me out of the software development for profit business at that time... But I still had to pay for all of the advertising contracts in trade magazines just the same... So it's fair to say that I have a bit of a problem with copyright infringement...

What is the propper way to getting corn "cooked" out? I am going to attempt a mash of just coarsely ground white cornmeal and enzymes and distillers yeast. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Not taking short cuts, ive read thousands of pages and don't feel you can ever have too many opinions. Thanks for your help.


2) Each grain is different. For corn..the biggest (most common) issue is getting it "cooked" out...such that the starches are exposed to mash out. Cooking a big ole pot of corn takes time/heat/water/agitation. Rye and oats tend to get gummy..so there are step rests for them at lower temps...to try and break them down the gluten a bit before bringing them up. Most of that will come with experience...how much water to use, what temps to use, etc..

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 34&t=16799
this is what its supposed to be but most fiend it takes more or longer.
mash temps are 100-110f /140f 150f
with a DP of at least30..and extended mash time.

Dnderhead wrote:http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 34&t=16799
this is what its supposed to be but most fiend it takes more or longer.
mash temps are 100-110f /140f 150f
with a DP of at least30..and extended mash time.

OMG That is amazing. Thanks DH. What are your thought on using BA and GA enzymes only vs malt?

the enzymes are not complete,,but they do help.best use i found for them is "per malting"
this is adding some before or while cooking.this helps the mash from getting so thick.

Dnderhead wrote:the enzymes are not complete,,but they do help.best use i found for them is "per malting"
this is adding some before or while cooking.this helps the mash from getting so thick.

Thanks. I live in a country way south of the border where you can spend all day looking for everthing they dont sell here. Enzymes are all I have so I'll give it a go and see how it turns out. Thanks again for your help.