Tried to vary Appalachian Sweet Mash

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Tried to vary Appalachian Sweet Mash

Postby Guyross » Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:33 pm

Well, live and learn. I had the bright idea that I would try to vary the tried and proven Appalachian recipe, because I hated squeezing the grain un that recipe. My bright idea was to split the corn into two parts - first part of 15 kegs int the fermenter with the boiled water, to instruction, and the second part of the corn, increased to 10kg for 25 kg total I was going to boil, sparge, and just use the wort. Then I would add the rye into the fermenter at proper temp, and mash and sparge the barley separately. The idea was to reduce the grain bed from around 40 kilos to around 25. More juice, less grain bed. You beauty, says I.

Well part one, 15kg corn went well. Part two, 10 kg corn, well, that was a different story. Got it to temperature fast, in a lage BIAB pot, but bloody hell, what a brick of corn and no juice. So, add more water, get to 70 degrees, add some alpha, get it to 65 to thin it and convert, and transfer. You beauty, I am a genius, says I. Except the fermenter temp had dropped by then to below conversion temp for the rye - thought I had time. At least I got the additional corn wort in the fermenter.

And away I go again - boil some more water, dump it in the fermenter, temp back up, dump in the rye, start the barley part of my plan going. But - in fermenter dropped again, and I need the barley wort to convert sugars, so can’t continue with the barley run as the fermenter would be too cold. Crap says I. So stoped the barley plan, boiled the water, dumped the hot water in the fermenter, got temp up, tossed the barley in the fermenter.

So, in the end, I got grain down by 7 kgs, not the 15 I was hoping for, and specific gravity was low so had to toss in some dextrose. Probably spent 2 to 3 hours more getting this done than if I had followed the recipe.

The worst part was my dear missus was watching me scrabble around like a mad woman pissing, finally asking me what on earth are you doing? Just the way I planned it says I.

Moral of the story - tried and proven are tried and proven for a reason. But looking back, it was a great day, and in the end I will get something good to distill. It smells great, wort tastes great. Don’t think I would like the hobby if it was the same every time.
Guyross
 
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