Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Made an interesting one today. I tried to mash 8kg of corn yesterday and think it failed pretty miserably. Typical fashion for me, just not prepared. Anyway it was in a grain bag, i dumped 50L of boiling water but the temp dropped quite quickly ( i will need o redo my insulation) over the next 1 1/2 hrs. I then added 4kg of peated malt at 65c and held it for 1 1/2 hrs. I cooled it with a wort chiller, squeezed the bag as best as i could and took an SG. 1.020 hahaha terrible! I'm guessing none of the corn converted and i got that from the peated malt?
Anyway, today i added 8kg of inverted sugar and 1kg of molasses because i was a bit worried there might not be enough nutrient and considering my recent poor form with AG not converting enough.
Temp was sitting at around 31c. Took another SG and got 1.083ish so thats a bit better.
I made a yeast starter with 150gm fresh bakers yeast, about 200ml of wort and about 100ml of lees from my previous whiskey ferment.
It didn't explode like it normally does, just kinda fizzed and didn't froth up, so already im a bit worried.
I aerated with a drill and paint stirrer before i pitched my yeast, as well as the rest of the lees (about 1L) and another 50gm of fresh bakers yeast just to be sure. After an hr its fizzing away nicely but certainly no frothing.

Was a bit of a mixed mash but i'm always the optimist. We'll see what tomorrow brings

4 kg of malt will not convert 8 kg of corn and what is the power of the peated malt.How did you crush the corn and the corn needs cooking.

Why would you use peated malt in a bourbon? Is this tradtitional?

Davecuds, if you ended up with around 40L of wash then you pretty much had zero conversion of your corn.

Next time add a kg of ale malt to your mash and make sure you corn is gelatinised. If you are mashing everything in a bag and the corn isn't a gooey mess, draw out the bag and reboil your water. Dump the bag back in and it should gel. Wait to cool and add crushed ale malt (finer the better).

Geez,

When I was dicking around with full AG's 12+kg corn was well crushed, gelatinized first regularly stirring it with a broom stick mash paddle, cooled, then whole 150ml of enzyme converter, a good high diastatic malt, sit for about 4 - 6 hours at Beta and Alpha temp breaks. Works but I can't be f'd with the hassles of full AG's anymore just do partials.

bt1

wynnum1 wrote:4 kg of malt will not convert 8 kg of corn and what is the power of the peated malt.How did you crush the corn and the corn needs cooking.

I think it should given the right conditions :think: Many malts have a DP of at least 60, usually more and a mash average of 30 is all you really need. But you really need to crack and cook that corn. :wave:

I did crack and tried to cook i but i lost temp too quickly and by that sage i was resolved to just add sugar. Im in the process of updating my fermenter/mash tun but in the mean time im happy just playing around. Still plenty of reading to do.
Anyway, looks like the yeast is working away happily so ill keep you posted. Hopefully it tastes nice then all wont be a waste.

Have a good weekend fellas!

Slow cooker would be useful to cook the corn if you have one .