Bryan's First AG sucess

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Bryan's First AG sucess

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:01 pm

G'day Guy's,
Well about a month or two ago decided to have a go at malting 5kg's of barely to have a go at a single malt mash. Well ended up with 6kg's of home made malt and bought a kilo of Joe White malt, off the calc I got on another forum for 8kg's the strike water at 77C will be 68C after the malt goes in. Taking readings it was bang on the money as the strike temp was 68C. Now I was using my green can burner as the heat source and my mashtun had the setup for the PID so for temp sensing it did the job. I let it go to 64C then I put the heat back on until 68C for close to 3 hours. Kept checking with a iodine test until it did show a full conversion.

Now with only 20 litres deiced to so a sugar bump to get enough to do a full run using my bubbler. Well what a surprise running this wash as my still went on a totally different path with all four site glass's fogging up and the ABV still at 85%. Now I found I'm getting 90% after a good reflux where I let all the plates load. My cooling water is so cold I have water vapour coming out of the 1/2" breather under the PC. :scared-eek: With this first ended up with 4 litres @65% to age and used 20 grams off my big domino which weighed 2.2kg before trimming. The story behind this domino is a few years ago my forklift mechanic mate said the boss at this wood drying joint would love some of your moonshine. So I decanted a CFW and about a month later I got a package of French and American toasted oak to last me a few years to say the least. My mate said he put a 5kg french oak slab in the dryer to see if it would fully toast. So that where my big domino came from.

After the first run I got 10kg's of sugar and took close 1/2 a bucket full of spent grain and replaced it with 5kg's of cracked corn and the starting sg was 1078 and the ph was bang on 4 so that oyster shell is still doing it's job.

So last Monday did a sg check and it was on 1000, checked on Wednesday and 1000 then checked again on Friday and got the same reading. Now it was still bubbling away so I guess thats a sign the yesties are still alive and waiting for a new feed. :laughing-rolling:

Did a run today and got 4 litres to 85% so very happy with that :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance:

I finally fixed that surround on the car rim to stop extra flame coming out, all it took was one tek screw :angry-banghead: and got still upto temp 1-1/2 hours later, now I do find running my home made luxford burner around 4-5 psi as that is enough BTU's to load all four plates. Well the first litre taken was using my 200ml glass's and on the 5th one noticed the flow stop and go back to a drip. Looked at the plates and total reduced activity then looked at the gas bottle to find it freezing up. Gave the gas bottle a shake and my burner came back to life but :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: gotta shut it down and get a new bottle.

So off to the green shed to get a bottle and stopped in to get another 10kg of sugar and soon after the gas bottle was connected the bubbles returned in the still. It ran for a few hours between 88 and 85C so I did put it back in reflux a few times to see the plates clear and get another 600ml cut. I use moccano jars for the cuts whre the standard sixe is just 600ml and the big ones are 1200ml. Which makes it handy when only had 6 standard ones.

With the generation scooped out 1/2 a bucket full of grain and added 2 icecream container of cracked corn and the same of cracked unmalted barley which I ran thru my corona mill and did 2 off runs of sugar bump with water while the still was still running. When I shut down the still I added the last 2kg's to it inverted it.

The starting sg was 1083 so another good yield is expected on the next run. I am thinking with this generation of making enough to fill a oak barrel where I can just leave it for a few years and forget about it, the only crux will be I do need a tap on the keg please Mr. Cooper :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan
RuddyCrazy
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Re: Bryan's Next AG Run

Postby RuddyCrazy » Mon Jan 25, 2021 1:09 pm

G'Day Guy's,
Well with my barely malted and dried decided to mill up 5 kg's of corn with a pretty fine grist and with the barely started with 3.5 kg's and after gristing 3.5 kg's :handgestures-thumbupleft: So my solar method of drying was a total sucess getting rid of all the moisture.

Got the corn steeping now and my mash tun all wrapped, got the water to 97C then dumped the corn in and gave it good mixing with my paint stirrer. If the temp drops below 85 I'll take the insulation off and stick the burner back on while mixing to get the temp backup. The plan is 3 hours for the corn @ 85-95C then let the temp drop down to 72C and add the 3.5 kg of my malt barely.

Now if this does end up a failure like my last 2 corn runs I can just top up the mash tun with water and add some Angel yeast :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

But hopefully the conversion will work then ill have a good gauge to compare the angel run project.

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Bryan's First AG sucess

Postby RuddyCrazy » Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:55 pm

Had a good read of Brendens thread and it was stated about 90 minutes above 90C so went for a full 2 hours at that temp then let it cool to 70C. Poured in my malt and it did seem to get a tad thinner but no way did it turn liquid :angry-banghead: So wrapped it up and left it for an hour only to find no conversion at all was taking place so decided stuff it filled the tun up with water and it's getting a dose of Angel yeast :laughing-rolling:

Glad I got that yeast as it saves my pitiful efforts at AG using corn :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: so atleast I can save the mash instead of it being horse food :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
RuddyCrazy
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Re: Bryan's First AG sucess

Postby Wellsy » Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:31 pm

If at first you don’t succeed try try again mate , glad you had the angel yeast
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Re: Bryan's Next AG Run

Postby RuddyCrazy » Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:55 am

G'day Guy's,
Well after adding all the water the temp of the mash was still 55C :teasing-tease: so just cut up a hessian sack and placed that over the top and used the top of a 50 litre keg I cut off to sit ontop. Silly me got fooled by the temp sensor on the PID showing the temp had dropped to 41 C so went and hydrated 40 grams of Angel Yeast in a 400ml beaker. Now as the the temp probe is on the external 1-1/2" triclamp fitting of course it's going to cool quicker than the mash. So I put my cleaned temp gauge in the mash to get a true reading. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now to help get the temp down I just wrapped a dozen turns of 1/2" black poly pipe around the tun held tight with duct tape and used my still cooling circuit to put cold water thru the pipe. To be safe I transferred the Angel yeast to a 1 litre beaker in case it went ballistic :teasing-tease: but it didn't at all in the 4 hours since I hydrated it. now there was activity but nothing like EC1118 yeast.

Went up about 9pm and the temp had dropped to just under 40C so added the yeast and gave it a real good mixing then covered it up and wrapped a blanket around to get the warmth in. Went up for a look this morning and it's bubbling away so this arvo I'll give it a good mixing.

This will be my first open ferment so hopefully I don't get an infection but time will tell.

Cheers Bryan
RuddyCrazy
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Re: Bryan's First AG sucess

Postby RuddyCrazy » Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:14 pm

Well onto day 3 with open ferment and when I opened it up there wasn't many bubbles coming up :angry-banghead: So gave it a good stir wit the paint mixer and sealed it back up. Went and had a look this arvo and the solids had parted with the water and not one bubble :angry-banghead: checked the temp and it was down to 30C so warmed it backup with the 2 ring crab burner mixing all the time to stop scorching and got it back to 35 C.

Only a few small bubbles were there so went and got the Angel Yeast out of the house fridge and added another 40 grams as I reckon i may of cooked that first batch of yeast :angry-banghead:

O'well lesson learnt :laughing-rolling: just hurry up and wait until YOU know the ferment is cool enough to add the yeast :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan
RuddyCrazy
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