Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Howdy all

I'm in the planning stages of my first AG.

At this point I'm thinking:
25 litre water
4kg sliced corn (stock feed)
1kg Mangrove Jacks dry malt, dark (hence the 'black' in the name :-)
750g Australian 5 Grains porridge (barley flakes, oats, Triticale[hybrid wheat and rye I think], rye flakes and brown rice flakes

I'll take 5l of water to the boil and add the corn. Probably simmer for 30 odd minutes before letting it sit to cool in its own time to somewhere near 65 deg c befor tossing in the dry malt and porridge. I'll do my best to maintain 65degC for 90 minutes then wrap it in a blanket overnight so I can pitch my yeast in the morning if its down to 25degC.

I see much goop in my future :-)
CJ

OMG!! Stirring concrete!! Looks like way too much grain for such a small (25l) fermenter - might think of something to spread it out if the gravity is high enough.

Dang that was hard work! It'll be all worth it in the end :-)

Ended up using 5 litre mark scoops of corn in the end.

Off for an ice pack for my shoulder - will report in as we go.

Cheers
CJ

10kg corn in 40l gives me bit over 2l hearts. I am just about ready to give it away and go back to my number 1 love rum...
But gotta try proper flaked corn first..

Where are the enzymes that will convert the starch to sugars? The malt extract won’t. Check the sg before u pitch yeast. U can save it by adding sugar :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:10kg corn in 40l gives me bit over 2l hearts. I am just about ready to give it away and go back to my number 1 love rum...
But gotta try proper flaked corn first..

Gotta go big on ag or it’s not worth doing imo.

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: with wobbles

Phew! what a day! So Wobblyboot you were absolutely right. I had, in my ignorance, assumed that the dark malt would actually possess the mystical properties of, well, malt. Now in its defence I did wake up to a gravity of 1020 - completely unexpected given the gravity (see what I did there) of your input. The rest of the morning was spent running around on other things before the lovely folk in Gosford brew shop parted with 200g each of roasted barley, caramalt, crystal, and wheat - all for $10 :-).

I got home and reheated the mash to 65C then added the 4 malts above, stirred like a mofo for a bit before putting a lid on it, wrapping it with a towel, saying a little prayer then having a nanna nap for an hour and half. Got up, said another short prayer to anyone who would listen, and measured gravity.........1062!!!!!! :happy-partydance:

I did a bunch of transferring back and forth between the biggest pots I have until I was down around 27C before pitching heaps of Lowans bakers yeast (having sat overnight I'm thinking there will be competing wild yeast so I over pitched and crossed my fingers)

It smells exactly as I imagine heaven so I am quietly super excited to see where this ridiculously complex grain bill takes me ;-)

CJ

and, no I'm not religious but hedging my bets in this circumstance felt prudent :-)

ChasingJack wrote:I got home and reheated the mash to 65C then added the 4 malts above, stirred like a mofo for a bit before putting a lid on it, wrapping it with a towel, saying a little prayer then having a nanna nap for an hour and half. Got up, said another short prayer to anyone who would listen, and measured gravity.........1062!!!!!! :happy-partydance:

Eh? Which malts?

Caramalt and wheat malt have dp dont think others do though..

bluc wrote:Caramalt and wheat malt have dp dont think others do though..

None will have anything substantial :handgestures-thumbdown:

I'm buggered if I know where there 62 gravity points came from then? Apart from the Mangrove Jack extract which gave me the initial 20 points. After dumping the other 4 grains in and steeping I found another 42 points.

mmmm....curious and curiouser?

I'll say say thing - she's black as the ace of spades and smells like honey and cuddles :-)

CJ

If you add more unfermetables to the wash you will raise your gravity, doesn’t mean those points will turn to sugar.

Let’s see what final gravity you have.

If you want to learn more I suggest reading the book “how to brew” by Ian smiley. It’s in the library

ah poo bum wee! Will see if I can find some sugar to rescue something out of the grain.

:-(

CJ

Hey Sam - is that "Making Pure Corn Whiskey: A Professional Guide For Amateur And Micro Distillers, by Ian Smiley"?

ChasingJack wrote:Hey Sam - is that "Making Pure Corn Whiskey: A Professional Guide For Amateur And Micro Distillers, by Ian Smiley"?

Oops my mix up it’s how to brew by John Palmer :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So a crash course, plain ale malt or lighter will have substantial diastic power(ability to turn starch to sugar) anything with colour or flavour won't.
If you ask your hbs for the cheapest base malt you'll get ale or lighter...

Thanks Sam and Coffe. The learning continues :-).

I'm going to let it ferment out as is just out of curiosity to see where it gets to then maybe feed it some sugar to get it over the line.

CJ

And Sam - pointing out the library has expanded my horizons immeasurably!!! What a treasure chest of reads!!!

Massive thanks!!

CJ

No worries mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: