BEGINNERS GUIDE IN CORN MASH PART 1

Welcome. Now this happens all the time. There's really, really no matter how many times I can do this. There's always that misunderstanding about making a corn mash and I just want to share it with you because It's real simple. We've got five pounds of corn here, and I've got about four gallons of water. I've got a little colander.  

Now. There are 1000 ways to do what I'm about to do, though this is, in my opinion, the most direct method that works for me, should work for you. But then again, I hear it all the time, Georgia did exactly what you did, and it didn't work. And I have to stop scratching my head and think, obviously, you didn't do everything I did, because I do it in front of you and works. So just follow along. It's really not that complicated.

Oh, so we're going to do today is we're going to make a corn mash, and then we're going to augment that with sugar to bring up the alcohol content, because at the end of the day, we can do this with 100% corn, no added sugar whatsoever. I just need a larger pot to do that in so make a five gallon batch. maybe six We're not going to be, we're not going to be focused on volumes as much. Because we're looking right now at the process.

How do we convert? Because you know that flake core is nothing more than starch. You know, it's been steamed, pressed, enrolled. So it's nothing more than starch and corn flavor. So we're going to extract all of that, then we're going to convert all of that to fermentable sugars.

Then we're going to, I'm going to show you the most important part and everybody forgets sparging. Yeah, well, we've got a look, we've got our own vocabulary. rinsing when I say sparge, that's another term for rinse. It's just one of those things that happens to be in the brewing community. So let's just start using prints that we go through the rinsing of the cereal grain as well. Now, you have here Here are the options In order to convert starch into fermentable sugar, you only need one thing. There's one thing and one thing only. And that's an enzyme to convert it. And it doesn't you can't see it happening, but you'll see the results of it. It's called alpha amylase. 

And it's resident in all grains, especially during the germination process because there's that enzyme that converts the starch in the seed to fermentable offer medical ship at that point, but two sugars it because sugar is the fuel base for all life, you know this, so it allows the seed to grow to seedling and does all those things. So that's what that enzyme does. Well in two row barley, or six row barley, there's enough amylase to convert itself whatever's left because most of its already sugars. But there's enough to convert itself and something else. Which that's why this is always added. Normally. 

To a recipe with this, but can we do it without this? Absolutely. But what do we need? Do we still need it? Yep, we've been paying attention. Emily's amylase enzyme can come in a form, like this is a small container. I know it takes a third teaspoon per gallon. So there's quite a bit in here and it does exactly the same thing is this now what's the ratio? Oh, gosh, it'll it'll five to six pound, Oct eight pounds of cereal grain that needs some help converting. It'll take about two pounds of to roller sexual to two and a half pounds. It doesn't take a whole lot. Yeah, there's a lot of enzymes left over. That people get. Oh gosh, I get stuck. 

They get stuck on Don't need to use grain and well no because Emily's is already here, one or the other. Come on Baba, you make your mind. Can you use both? Absolutely. Do you need to know? Nope, no. Okay. Now there is another form of amylase known as a beta amylase.

A Beta amylase is sold under the brand name of  glucose amylase and that's because it's a derivative. It's a beta amylase is also resident in the grain and it becomes active and does its job at fermentation temperature. So we don't have to worry about that at this point. All we want to do is get this converted. I know George, you're wasting time. Gosh, let's get to it. Okay, here's what I have done. I've taken my pH meter and I've dropped the pH of my water down to about four and a half 4.6 because I know that once I introduce this It'll rise a little bit and then we'll check it again later. Don't worry about it. We'll get it right. But I do need an acidic environment for all of this to take place or to at least help it take place. But now this thing here holds 30 courts. Good Five little over five gallons.  

We're not going to. I've got four gallons of water in here. What's it for four, it's about 16 liters somewhere in the neighborhood. Okay, four times 416 No, probably about 14 liters. So, that's what I got in here. And I've already got it nice and warm. It's probably about 150 degrees. We're going to bring it up. I'm going to use this colander and the reason I'm going to use the colander is because I like keeping the green separated from the water if at all possible. So that look you got to straighten it out anyway. Once we've extracted everything from this corn, whatever's remaining is no good to you.

So remember, you got to you've got to strain it before it goes in the stool anyway, right? Hmm. I prefer it. I prefer to ferment off again. So that means I'll strain everything out of it and I'll use a clear lick or whatever color the liquid is I'll use the liquid. And I'll ferment that because that's where all my sugars are. They're not in my grain. no matter how much grain you put in additional grain, you put it in there. all it's doing is soaking up water. It's not really doing you any good. So it's just my way of doing it. 

Okay, again, remember, thousand ways. I do it off the ground because it's just to me, it's so much easier, cleaner and quicker. Now, what I'll do is I've got this bag. It's like a Muslim bag, you know, it's got a whole bunch of holes in it. I'm just gonna put all the grain in this bag. It's Inside this column because it makes it easy for me to remove them if necessary, Now, if you happen to have one of these, or something similar to this, okay, there's a bunch of ways to do it. I fashion some of these hooks and with these hooks are four. I got three of them. I made three of them. 

Okay, I'm going to show you this. What these are for is so that when my grain is ready, my core is in here and it's ready and I'm finished cooking. And I'm finished converting. What I want to do is I want to strain it ring sparge. So I'm going to place these books around the side that will lift this up and hold it there. There is either simply just please don't just hook them. 

I've got three. Three does just fine. And I got one here just a little bit too low. There it is. So it sits right there and then that way now a lot of the water that's in here, four gallons, it comes up to about here. So I'm above that, but a lot of that water is going to be gone because it's going to be sucked up in those grains. What do I want to do? What do you want water and just pour over it? It's called sparkling rinsing, rinsing all those fermentable sugars back out of those grains back down into the pot.

See, that's the part most people forget. You forgot to rinse the grains. Why it makes it so much easier to strain the grains. Okay, let's move on. So this pot Actually, this colander actually has a standoff on the bottom you'll see it's about two inches. So what that allows me to do is to turn the heat up on this without scorching any of these grains that you may have one and just be cautious if it's too thick. 

Your amount of corn versus your water and the proper mixture they say, and I hate using the term day, but I hear that a lot to the proper mixture is about two pounds per gallon. But I'd be sick. I feel more comfortable with about a pound and a half per gallon because it gives you a little bit more liquid room so it's not so bulky. Because if it sits on the bottom, and that's where the heat has been introduced, it'll start to burn and scorch and it leaves a nasty taste.

Let's move on. Simply all I have to do now since I've already adjusted my pH is introduce more corn. And then I'm going to bring that up to about Oh, about 190 degrees I don't need it to be a boy I could bring it to a boil up a warm to totally up to you. What I'm trying to do is I'm not activating anything. I'm hydrolyzing. I'm getting this court as wet as possible and hot water tends to do the trick because that's how you release all of those starches.