The purpose of corn straining ?

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The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby timboss » Tue May 10, 2016 2:15 pm

Hi All

I just thought I'd start another thread rather than derail vqstatesman's.

Is the purpose for straining the corn to just to squeeze all the liquid out from the grain to get the maximum amount of wort back?

I'm soon to embark on my first AG using corn ground to flour, however rather than spend hours straining I figured I'd just aim for around 10 litres above what I'd expect my boiler charge to be, so for example if I'm expecting a 50 litre boiler charge I'll do a 60 litre mash, then just rack into the boiler as per normal hopefully leaving all the grunge at the bottom of the fermenter.

Is my thought process correct here, or have I completely missed something?
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby bluc » Tue May 10, 2016 2:34 pm

That will work you just lose that 10 l if you squeeze you may recover 5-6l so you only lose 4. I hate squeezing and I figure the less my hands touch the mash the better.But I just stuffed my first attempt at all grain so what do I know :teasing-tease:
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby hillzabilly » Wed May 11, 2016 10:28 am

The finer ya grind the harder it is ta strain ,my recommendation would be ta start with a coarse'a grind corn and go finer once you know were ya are,and yes its just to get the max amount out of a brew from the grains ,these are low alc washes compared to sugar wash and a lot more cost and work ,so that 10 lt left in the fermenter could be seen as a 10-20% loss,but the rewards are there for those that can get it ta work well.cheers hillzabilly
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby Whiskyaugogo » Wed May 11, 2016 7:25 pm

Straining/sparging is a pain at home but well worth the extra effort!

I don't crush my corn fully but there is a lot of flour in my grinds. I personally found this the best mix between the completely pulverized or coarse grind.

Our mashes end up around the 1.075 to 1.08 gravity so yield is normally excellent with our corn grind. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby vqstatesman » Wed May 11, 2016 9:27 pm

If you don't sparge or strain some how you can expect to loose an easy 20% +. All grain certainly isn't a cheap or easy process. I'm certainly no cheap ass and its not about making cheap booze but if I can squeeze (see what I did there) an extra 20% or so out I'll give it a good go.

Just out of interest Whiskyaugogo, what's your method?
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby EziTasting » Wed May 11, 2016 9:36 pm

vqstatesman wrote:...I'm certainly no cheap ass and its not about making cheap booze but if I can squeeze (see what I did there)...


:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
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Re: The purpose of corn straining ?

Postby Whiskyaugogo » Wed May 11, 2016 9:49 pm

vqstatesman wrote:If you don't sparge or strain some how you can expect to loose an easy 20% +. All grain certainly isn't a cheap or easy process. I'm certainly no cheap ass and its not about making cheap booze but if I can squeeze (see what I did there) an extra 20% or so out I'll give it a good go.

Just out of interest Whiskyaugogo, what's your method?


Do you mean if I sparge or squeeze? Neither mate, I distill on grain. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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