Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey guys
Just sticking my toe in the water of an all grain run.
Just getting my head around what the hell to boil the corn in and how the hell I am going to lift it when done.
I think I will be starting small lol, seems the easiest answer.
Do you guys use alpha amylase, if so what is a good all purpose one, or given I can see lots of small packet suppliers is it simply a hbs add on that is not always needed
Thanks

alternatively, gelatinise it, cool down and use angel yeast? Thats my plan

I've just started doing a bit of this with unmalted grains. Malted grains are easy as long as you are using a decent percentage of malted grain that can convert enough unmalted grain. (Eg I used around 40% malted barley with 60% unmalted rye, more then is needed.) For unmalted grain I'm using a couple of different liquid enzymes from Deltagen. Using both their Deltazyme Rye & Deltazyme AMG. Will give you all the enzyme conversion you need. Just need to make sure you have it at the correct PH & gelatinise the grains. Deltazyme Rye has Alpha-Amylasa, Xylanasa, cellulase etc enzymes and Deltazyme AMG has the Amyloglucosidae (Glocoamylase). Should be able to do all the conversion you need & works out a lot cheaper then the little hbs packs

Corn is a biatch. Add corn to boiling water wait till it sets solid once temp at 65 add enzyme.

Sounds simple....

I gave up and use angel yeast much simpilier and better effeciency. Tried sparging and squeezing with enzyme and malt barely..
Did I mention cornnis a bitch...

Thanks guys
It sort of confirms what I thought, looks like I am going to need to work hard if I want straight grain with no sugar.

I have used angel but have only done the one spirit run with it, tasted ok but smelled like puke so am hoping that goes away. It is currently on oak chips so I will give it a few more weeks.

Getting a boiler big enough looks expensive as well, still we keep looking and thinking and planning, after all we have to do something during those runs lol

Straight corn is different than straight grain… because corn is a bitch.

I have done corn in every single run since starting this hobby. Not the best learning curve. Tough to sparge and tough to strain. It is easier to work with if you ferment on the corn with a BIAB set up… but still a bitch. :angry-banghead:

My recipe is corn, rolled oats and barley. Did anyone mention oats? Oats are a bitch! :angry-banghead:

I am using enzymes from a distilling company from US. They work real well. I don’t bother to check final specific gravity before fermentation because the enzymes continue to do their work after fermentation starts.

Are you looking to use cracked feed corn or flaked brewing corn?

When hydrated both make a good sticky mess. I soak cracked corn in hot Backset for around 48 hours before doing a mash. For flaked corn Bring water to about 175*F, add corn, stir. Let it sit for an hour while stirring 2-3 times. When temp drops to range needed for malted barley or enzymes add them. I do a long soak stirring occasionally as temp falls to pitch temp. Check with iodine… maybe. Taste works as well for me. Pitch when at right temp. Control your ferment temp.

[quote="Wellsy"]Thanks guys


I have used angel but have only done the one spirit run with it, tasted ok but smelled like puke so am hoping that goes away. It is currently on oak chips so I will give it a few more weeks.

I am having the same smell issue. I have had a small batch 1L on 3 oak dominoes for a month and it still smells like puke, taste is a bit wheaty but I am hoping the smell goes away as I have 10L of the stuff.

Thanks Dancing
I think I will end up trying to get a 50 litre keg and take the top off it and use it as a mashing barrel on a gas ring.
I am guessing if I mash in a 50 litre keg I can add water to it and brew it in a 200 litre barrel.
Or have you found it it best just to pitch yeast into mash without adding water. Do you use the bakers yeast when doing all grain or have you found better luck with specialised yeast.
I am hoping to do some experiments between sugar and grain, grain and angel yeast, and all grain. If the results are not that different I will then be able to decide if the results are worth the effort

Doing two corn mashes right now

Rice hulls really help with the stuck sparge issue. Two big handfuls in each was good, three would have been better

Five kg of corn gelatinized and then two caps of alpha amylase in the mash and watch that gloopy mess liquify. The mash dropped about three inches in the tun as starch was converted

Actually, better go sparge this now

Wellsy to get your teeth wet with AG go grab a 20 kg sack of barely from the feed store and get malting the grain :handgestures-thumbupleft: then if your not sure of a full conversion go grab a kilo of Joe White malt from the HBS to help. I used US-05 yeast on my AG then got the generations going with 5kg of milled corn and on the last generation 5 kg of corn and 5 kg of barely. As I use 60 litre fermenters I put 12 kg's of sugar in for each generation and ran each generation over 4 plates. now I did leave enough off each generation to strip and do a spirit run in my 2" pot still and I do have to say after aging the potstilled one is way better. :laughing-rolling:

As you keep saying your a newbie :laughing-rolling: but man your learning and have the cash to buy the best :handgestures-thumbupleft: after the cleaning run in your new bubbler how about doing a single malt from the feed store.

Cheers Bryan

Thanks Bryan, wrong time of year for me to malt any barley, it was 1 degree overnight here last night.

As for the cash I don’t have that much , well not anymore. It has taken me 12 months to get the money together to be able to complete the setup I wanted when I first started. So glad I went the pot still path first though as it taught me , and still is , me so much. If I had the money I would get the 200 litre boiler with the built in mixer, now that is how you do all grain lol.

I was looking at all grain to see if the product was much smoother without that sugar kick. If it is too much trouble I will stick with my raw sugar washes.

It is the heating the grain and holding a high temp that is challenging me, all my fermenters are plastic and even though I am a newbie I know that I can’t put the gas under the fermenter to keep it hot. I passed that lesson off as a bespoked pot plant holder for mum on Mother’s Day :laughing-rolling:

What about this option Wellsy:


https://www.pulsair.com/55-gallon-drum-mixer/

Should be able to get hold of an old 55 gallon drum cheaply - put it on some legs with a tap and a pump…..

Wellsy wrote:Thanks Bryan, wrong time of year for me to malt any barley, it was 1 degree overnight here last night.

As for the cash I don’t have that much , well not anymore. It has taken me 12 months to get the money together to be able to complete the setup I wanted when I first started. So glad I went the pot still path first though as it taught me , and still is , me so much. If I had the money I would get the 200 litre boiler with the built in mixer, now that is how you do all grain lol.

I was looking at all grain to see if the product was much smoother without that sugar kick. If it is too much trouble I will stick with my raw sugar washes.

It is the heating the grain and holding a high temp that is challenging me, all my fermenters are plastic and even though I am a newbie I know that I can’t put the gas under the fermenter to keep it hot. I passed that lesson off as a bespoked pot plant holder for mum on Mother’s Day :laughing-rolling:

Thanks HG
Given how thick the mash gets, I have only seen online stuff so that needs to be taken with a grain of salt of course, the mixer may not work, but if the right 44 was available that would make a great masher. Just need to get a clean one lol.

https://beerco.com.au/products/benzyme-aa-alpha-amylase is what I use, along with corn grits, have recently purchased flaked maized and malted maize so I don't need to bother doing cereal mashing or gelationizing corn

Can also get cracked corn/maize from stock feed place and just cook it and add the alpha amylase

Wellsy wrote:Thanks Dancing
I think I will end up trying to get a 50 litre keg and take the top off it and use it as a mashing barrel on a gas ring.
I am guessing if I mash in a 50 litre keg I can add water to it and brew it in a 200 litre barrel.
Or have you found it it best just to pitch yeast into mash without adding water. Do you use the bakers yeast when doing all grain or have you found better luck with specialised yeast.
I am hoping to do some experiments between sugar and grain, grain and angel yeast, and all grain. If the results are not that different I will then be able to decide if the results are worth the effort

Sorry Wellsy, I missed your question. Been busy.

My ferments end up being 70 L of liquid. I Ferment on grain. I have had good luck with bakers yeast. I have also pitched a mixture of yeast. Bakers and Angel 75/25%. Also have done a Bakers and DADY 50/50% mix.

I don’t use any added sugar. I ferment on grain for two reasons. It is way easier to strain after fermentation. Enzymes will continue to convert carbohydrates to sugar during ferment giving a higher yield that what a OG reading would lead me to expect.

The mixture of yeast seems to give good results when the ABV gets high due to continued enzyme action during ferment. My thinking is that different yeast are happier in different environments. The environment changes so why not try to take advantage of that. I have no solid evidence to support the idea but it seems to work.

I’m new to distilling and really enjoy experimenting.

Thanks Dan,
I noticed vaccinated people can visit your country in a month or two soi might even be in your next of the woods soon. We have two kids living in Canada , both are in Vancouver at the moment, and we are as keen as mustard to get over to visit them. One lived in Kamloops for 2 years and has in-laws in Calgary.
Once things start to get warmer I will be looking to try some AG