Corn Mash All Grain

[singlemaltluv]

I need help from guys that is way smarter than I am at this to see if this is possible. I did an all grain mash of 12 gallons of water with 24 to 25 pounds of crack corn that I ran through my grain mill twice. The corn wasn’t a fine flour but a course grind above corn meal. My process was to bring the water up to 190 f before adding the corn ( I find that doing it this way it’s less of a chance of scorching the corn). I stirred like crazy in order to break up any dough balls. Once I noticed that the porridge getting thick I hit it with high temp enzymes (amylase). I kelp the fire on until I reached around 195 to 200 keeping it at this temperature for at least three hours ( I know it’s a long time but I had nothing else to do). After that I cooled it down to 180 and hit it with the high temp enzymes because they would have denatured above 190. I then let it sit at that temperature over night not insulated so it would be around 150 in the morning so I could use the other enzyme which required a temperature at that temp. After using some citric acid to acidify it to the 4 to 5 ph level I used the enzyme. I then added 5 pounds of Munich malt (what the hell I was at the home brew shop). I then let it sit to convert. After a couple of hours I could see clear liquid on top at which I collected some and used my refractometer and got a reading of 10.74 . Believing that my refractometer was not calibrated, I drove to the nearest home brew shop and bought a hydrometer to double check. The reading that I got from it was reading the same at 10.74. My question is with this amount of grain to water ratio is it possible to get such a high reading or is I’m just kidding myself with hopefully high gravity reading. Don’t get me wrong I will take it but I think I would want to add a little backseat that I’ve been saving for a couple of years so as not to stress the yeast. If I’m reading it correctly this have the potential of being a 10% wash.

[juana_b]

1.074 is around what one may expect from that grain-to-water ratio. With my water, I wouldn't drop the ph any more with backset. YMMV.

[8Ball]

Congratulations, you nailed it! Now get that yeast working. I agree w/j_b: don’t drop the ph anymore with backset. Throw in a handful of crushed shells if you have any.

[singlemaltluv]

1.074 is around what one may expect from that grain-to-water ratio. With my water, I wouldn't drop the ph any more with backset. YMMV.

Thanks for the quick reply. I know most guys here shoots for a 6 to 8% wash when doing all grain. I’m hitting 1.8 above that. May need to cut back a little something like 1.5 lb to the gallon.

[singlemaltluv]

Congratulations, you nailed it! Now get that yeast working. I agree w/j_b: don’t drop the ph anymore with backset. Throw in a handful of crushed shells if you have any.

I do have some but have to go digging in the shed to find them lol. Been a while since I’ve done this. Fell hard down the home brew beer slope so been hard at that for a couple years.

[juana_b]

Now that you know you can get a good conversion of starch to sugars, shoot for a little less. Billions of your yeast will thank you.
Good work, singlemaltluv.

[Bradster68]

I love your corn process .
I do mine almost exactly the same. I get an amazing OG for that process.
You've "kicked corns ass" which is one of the most stubborn grains we use.