Mashing corn.

[Ducatiboy Stu]

Coming from an AG beer background where grains etc are mashed corn has got me asking a few questions. What I am aiming to do is make a bourbon so I have a few questions.

Does corn need to be mashed like malted barley. Have seen some writtings that you just mix it with boiling water.

Is normal animal feed corn suitable. I can get it here direct from growers cracked in 25kg bags

What would be the optimal corn/water ratio so I can work out an SG based on a 50ltr wash

Any reason why I cant/shouldnt mash the corn in with malt barly,wheat &rye

[wedwards]

I have the same background and if you check out mcstills American whiskey recipe you will see the process used - it's much more forgiving when mashing for distillation purposes.

I just get cracked corn/maize from the feed shop and make sure there's no preservatives in it, comes in 25kg bags

[wedwards]

And yes, I mash the corn and other grain together

[wynnum1]

Or malt the corn.

[Kimbo]

Or malt the corn.

this will only work if its seed corn, not feed corn ( so i just found out :mrgreen: )

[Ducatiboy Stu]

That brings another question......do they malt the in bourbon production.....

[Dominator]

Recipes like macs Bourbon Whisky Knock Off (BWKO) are sugar head washes, so your only using the grain for flavour and your adding sugar for your alc content. By using sugar there is no need to 'mash' your grain/malt to convert/release starches and enzymes. Have a look in the tried and proven section of recipes for the BWKO and MacWhisky. They will give you an idea of how much grain to use for sugar/grain washes.

[Ducatiboy Stu]

Mmm..Making proper malted corn could be interesting. I would actually like to do a "proper " bourbon mash

[Kimbo]

Mmm..Making proper malted corn could be interesting. I would actually like to do a "proper " bourbon mash

Hey Ducatiboy, if you want to do a full mash, you dont need to malt the corn. All you need is Malted Barley to convert the corn starches to fermentable sugar :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Ducatiboy Stu]

Cool...Thanks. That will make life heaps easier. Did a bit of reading and looks like you need about 20% malted barley in a corn mash.

Will have to do a test run to see what sort off eff I get thru the tun. Normally I get 75-80% with my beere