Scarecrow's Rye 101

by **scarecrow** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 5:59 pm

Recipe is as follows:

Cracked Corn 3.0 kg
Rye Malt 6.2 kg
Barley Malt 2.0 kg
Yeast 3 tablespoon
Backset 15 litres
Water to 60 litres

This recipe gives me 4 batches from a 25 Kg bag of rye malt.

Procedure

I buy cracked corn by the bag, but I run it through the corona mill one pass to get it a bit finer.

corncrack.jpg

Boil a batch of water. I do about 40 litres.
I then make up about 2 litres of sanitiser and sterilise everything

I picked up 4 slow cookers at an auction for $5 each. They hold 8 litres.
I add 0.75 kg (3.0 kg divided by 4) corn to each crock pot, and then fill them up with boiling water. Add 2 drops defoamer (or it will foam like crazy).
I then cook on high for 3hrs till gelled, stirring frequently.

corncooks.jpg

I dump one pot of corn into a bucket and then mix this with 12 litres boiling hot water. The corn falls to the bottom very quickly.
I then strain this and set it aside. Spent corn goes into another bucket.
I use 2 x 20 litre buckets with metal flyscreen to sieve out the corn. Cut the arse out of both of them and jam the flyscreen between the two. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

strainer.jpg

I take the next pot of corn and mix it with some of the original strained goop. Filter it and set it aside.
All I’m doing is using the same 12 litres of boiling water to strain out all the corn. Once you get the knack of it, it can be done in about 15 minutes.
The corn goop will still be about 80°C+. I wear oven mitts, because everything is farkin’ hot.
Once all the corn has been strained, I transfer the corn goop to the mash tun. I usually end up with about 20-22 litres.
All the spent corn is in a separate bucket. (Here chook chook chook)
When the corn goop gets to 75°C, I add the rye and barley malts. Temp now is about 68°C. I keep stirring till it gets to 64°C. This helps break up the malts and cool the batch down. I then close the mash tun and come back in 3 hours. Temp will have dropped 1 or maybe 2°C.

ryemash.jpg

At this stage it passes the iodine test, so I dump the mash into the fermenter. I give it a quick rinse with about 4 litres water. I don’t sparge my rye wash as I ferment on the grain.
I add 4 kg of ice to rapid cool the mash.
I add 15 litres thawed backset from the previous batch. (I will keep 15 litres from this batch and store it in the freezer).
I add water to 60 litres (usually about 10-12 litres).
Temp is now about 30°C and pH is 4.2.
I aim for around 1.060 @ 20°C.

fermenter.jpg

I hydrate 3 tablespoons of yeast in a litre of 35°C water and after about 20 mins I give it a quick stir then I add it to the fermenter, beat the crap out of it for 5 mins then airlock it.
Ferment is finished in about 3 – 5 days. It ferments out to 1.010, sometimes a smidge less.
I let it settle a few more days.
Grain bed is about 22-25 litres. Wash volume is about 35 litres.

I strip 4 batches (down to 10%), then a run through my CM. I get about 8 litres per strip.

Product is aged @ 65% on medium toast oak for 2 years and diluted to 50.5% for drinking (neat).
Put a horn on a jellyfish this would. :laughing-rolling:

scarecrow

by **MacStill** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:09 pm

Beautiful write up Scarecrow, thank you :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hopefully a few hop on to this and help get it moved to the proven section :D

by **crow** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:26 pm

Hi ya scarecrow (I'm not that scared BTW) :laughing-rolling:,What do you use as an ainti foaming agent
Been looking for a new direction to go once I have enough oat whiskey, this might be one to try :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 7:07 pm

Excellent photos, great detail. This is really well done and very useful for members here.

by **scarecrow** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 7:43 pm

crow wrote:What do you use as an ainti foaming agent

I use a 2% silicone solution I get from a mate of mine that uses it to defoam commercial fish farm ponds. About 1/4 teaspoon in a 40 litre strip cuts puking back to almost zilch.

scarecrow

by **crow** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:34 pm

scarecrow wrote:
crow wrote:What do you use as an ainti foaming agent

I use a 2% silicone solution I get from a mate of mine that uses it to defoam commercial fish farm ponds. About 1/4 teaspoon in a 40 litre strip cuts puking back to almost zilch.
scarecrow

:think: that sounds interesting, would you be able to find out what this stuff is called. I know bintani sell an antifoam agent for not a bad price but freight is a bit of a killer

by **scarecrow** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:29 pm

I've led you astray mate. It's a 10% solution (not 2%) of Polydimethyl siloxane. It's a food grade silicone.

Months ago I was searching for this stuff and found that Castle Chemicals have a product called Agri D Foam.

http://castlechem.rb.com.au/?page_id=6

Under Food Processing/View Brochure - 2nd page down.

Last quote I got was about $20/litre if I got a six pack. This is delivered to Far Northern NSW. Get on to one of the distributors. There should be one at Shepparton.

Last price from Bintani was about $35/litre. Always check the concentration. Some are 10% some are 30%. And anywhere in between.

scarecrow

by **tipsy** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:13 pm

scarecrow wrote: I don’t sparge my rye wash as I ferment on the grain.

Is there a reason for fermenting on the grain? I could understand if you didn't have a mash tun.

Does it help with flavour?

by **scarecrow** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:31 pm

I ferment rye mash on the grain because it is too gloopy to sparge. It also provides extra flavour on the grain.

I did an experiment once by straining the mash before it went into the fermenter. It had trouble going through flyscreen (with a lot of stirring) and I ended up using a very course material that would "sort of" work. I got it from the fabric shop. It's used for brides veils. Very course.

At the end of it all, I was sweating like a pig and was in more shit than a werribee duck. I swore I would never do it again. Bottom line: NOT WORTH IT! :handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown:
It's easier to dump it from the mash tun straight into the fermenter. Over and done with in 2 minutes. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

At the end of it, you can throw a coupla kegs of sugar in and make a faux whiskey with the left overs. Sweet!. :D

scarecrow

by **tipsy** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:22 pm

cool :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **deejay** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 9:14 pm

there well fed them werribee ducks :))

by **crow** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:22 pm

scarecrow wrote:I ferment rye mash on the grain because it is too gloopy to sparge. It also provides extra flavour on the grain.I did an experiment once by straining the mash before it went into the fermenter. It had trouble going through flyscreen (with a lot of stirring) and I ended up using a very course material that would "sort of" work. I got it from the fabric shop. It's used for brides veils. Very course.At the end of it all, I was sweating like a pig and was in more shit than a werribee duck. I swore I would never do it again. Bottom line: NOT WORTH IT! :handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown:
It's easier to dump it from the mash tun straight into the fermenter. Over and done with in 2 minutes.
At the end of it, you can throw a coupla kegs of sugar in and make a faux whiskey with the left overs. Sweet!. :D

yuza I''m hearing ya there, DO NOT I repeat NOT try to sparge oats either yad be lucky to get it through dog fencing wire :handgestures-thumbdown: