First play with grains...

[bluc]

Hey all had my first play with some grain today, I most likely broke every rule in the book, so heres what I did.

I followed mac bwko recipe but I attempted to gelatinize the corn then used barley and wheat malt to convert the starch.
I put the corn in the slow cooker and cooked on low all night the result was getting out of bed a few times through the night to add water and a very gluggy bowl of corn this morning.





ok maybe this might work to a degree I put a biab bag into my t500 boiler hooked up to my voltage controller to control temp manually using a digital thermometer.


I didnt think of it at the time but I should have got photos of the mash maybe on gen two.

So in addition to cooking the corn overnight I boiled it at 90 degrees for a further hour to impart flavour into water, 15l of mash water to be exact. I then cooled to 65 degrees and added the malts and held it at 65 degress using the t500 boiler. After 1 hour 15 mins and the use of some iodine I was happy the the starch had converted.I did not add enzymes just relied on the malts for the enzymes. I didn't use a drill on the corn and the water did not get real thick. But The iodine test was showing no starch.

pic of the iodine tests from left to right on top row then the second row goes.


1st with no malts after corn had been cooked an hour
2nd and third were taken at 30m then 45m but I did not stir the mix and it gave me a false result
4th test was at 1 hour
5th test at 1.5h
6th test 2h was happy the starch had been converted
last test was what I squeezed from the grain bed.

I then dumped 18l cold water in to bring the total in fermenter to 30l which also dropped the mash temp to 35 which is were I pitched the yeast.
Here is a pic of the online calculator its a guesstimate as I used Australian joe white malt of the same type in calculator



My sg was 1.065 so hoping it does ok..

Gen one now bubbling away happily in the shed. I intend doing 5 gens of this... then a spirit run. Lol let me know how many things I have done wrong and how I can improve for gen 2 cheers :text-thankyoublue:

[bluc]

So wash finished at 1.000 giving me abv of about 8. Second gen will go on today :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[wynnum1]

The 18l cold water if that is heated up there may be some residual sugar that can be washed out of the grain .

[bluc]

Sparge the grain? Atm not being to fussy atm and am still lifting pouring liquids. If i like the end result i will work out a better system for moving fluid around and be bit more fussy.. I still have another three gens to go so may make an imersion chiller would be a big help i think...

[bluc]

Thinking of a stainless insulated mush tun. Pot in pot with a stainless biab/hop spider thingo and an imersion chiller. I find using the current cloth biab i have no problems with sticking burning corn and it gelatinizes fine also at least i think it does :?

[wynnum1]

The biab bags i got pack of 3 paint strainer bags from paint shop for straining 10 - 20l for $8.

When they prepare fresh corn for mexican food they treat the corn with Hydrated Lime and on google there is a patent http://www.google.com/patents/US113997.
his invention relates to certain improvements on the process of treating grain, for which Letters Patent No. 109,887, were granted to me on the 6th day of December, 1870.

The object of the present invention is- First, to withdraw from the grain, before mashing it, the proteine necessary for complete fermentation, and return it, after sacchariz'ation, to the mash;

[bluc]

I thought the idea was to release the starch from the corn (i just use cracked corn cooked to poridge like state) then use malted barley which has the enzyme to convert the starch to sugar?

[bluc]

When using back-set the mash can end up to acidic correct? should I use a bit less back-set with each new gen? I am on gen 2 and I used 10l back-set I am on day 4 and mash is bubbling steadily.. Should I reduce this amount in gen 3,4,5 or will I stick with 10l

[bayshine]

I would get a ph meter if i was you, then you will know how much to use :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[bluc]

Ok will do cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft: