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- bachman March 2016
- grim March 2016
- jacksonbrown March 2016
- Kdog March 2016
- Knafs March 2016
- Myles March 2016
- punkin March 2016
- richard March 2016
- TheMechWarrior March 2016
Removing the Cracked Corn, Malted Barley and Malted Rye from the Wash....
What are the best ways to remove the grains from a bourbon mash? I have tried a false bottom (no luck the cracked corn clogs the holes) I have tried a BIAB (little to no luck the cracked corn clogs the net holes). I heard maybe lycra (spandex) might work better at allowing the grains to drain over a several hour period of just hanging. Anyone have any good way of getting good results without a huge sloppy mess and lots and lots of time? Any help would be appreciated :D ~X(
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You could try adding a heap of rice husks but I think you'll find that's the main reason corn based washes are stripped on the grain. It's the simplest solution to a PITA problem.
It is doable, but costly. Keen to hear any viable solutions that don't involve presses, centrifuges or other expensive equipment.
Ferment on the grain and filter before distillation.
Paint strainer bag works well, get one large enough for a 5 gallon bucket, and go to town. Squeeeeeeze. It won't take more than 30 min to prep, strain, and clean up.
Sloppy messes make good bourbon.
Filtering post fermentation reduces the risk of microbial infection from swimming in the wash. As a bonus your yield will be higher.
If you want to rack off yeast, you'll need to very quickly cold crash in your fridge after separating. Or, don't bother.
Beta glucanase enzyme will make filtration easier, especially if you use wheat or rye.
Thanks @grim I will give the paint strainer a try! Does the Beta glucanase enzyme thin the mash out which makes it easier to strain?
Has anyone tried these?
I use them now, after pressing the wort flows from the drip pan into those filters on a 5 gallon bucket. I have three of them and switch them out with each bucket full. then rinse all three and repeat. I bought these a few years back from Utah bio-diesel, thinking about upgrading to the stainless model when they give out
@bachman, Do you use 100, 200, 400 or 600 Micron Strainer? What do you press the wort with? So you press it first the filter it, so it's a two stage process you are using?
Thanks @Knafs for the link!
How many folks actually go the other way and ferment and then distil on the grain.
Are you fermenting in your still boiler or transferring grain and wash between vessels.
Mate i did the BIAB and it worked fine. Ate you sure you broke down all the starches? Then you wear good thick gloves because it's all bloody hot as Hades, you then squeeze the shit out of.
Another reason it's easier to just let it ferment and separate after. I'd rather get my hands dirty in 70-75f wash, than 100+.
Those bucket covers don't work worth a damn. Paint strainer bag, 5 gallon bucket, pot with a handle. Scoop scoop squeeze dump repeat.
Post-fermentation because you aren't going to make a microbiological disaster out of your wash that way.
I tried it 20 different times, made all sorts of contraptions. Paint strainer bag and a bucket was the least messy, required the lowest investment, required no cleaning of contraptions, and was much faster than any gravity based approach.
At the distillery - we separate post distillation using a 4 mesh stainless screen, it does a decent job, but your corn MUST be coarse.
@kdog, I use a cheap 12 ton hydraulic press and the bucket filter, not sure about the mesh size but it is pretty fine. I filter post fermentation, my corn is ground to mostly meal, and is basically 1 step with the the hydraulic press and the runoff draining into a five gallon bucket with the screen on top. I mash 75 pounds of grain at a time, and it takes about 11/2 hours start to cleanup. It is a messy process so I work on top of a tarp, then bring it outside and rinse it off. @grim do you have any photos of your setup?
I'll shoot a video the next time.
@TheMechWarrior I believe the starch was converted fine before I attempted to squeeze that bag. I did an iodine test and showed good conversion. Is there a better method to test conversion. I had ok results with BIAB with smaller quantities of grain but at 60lbs of grain(75%corn 8%barley 7%rye) is sucked hard. I got only about 7-8 gallons of wort and that is fermenting nicely (OG was 1.06ish)
@grim I bought some 5 gallon paint strainer bags and am going to give it a shot. I'd like to see a video of the process too. @bachman I like the tarp idea and will use that too. What is the set up on the hydronic press. Can you show a video or pics that also interests me! I checked out that Utah biodiesel company. They make some great filter solutions that may ad in this process have a look and see what you guys think. They can fabricate most any type of filter from 1micron-1000 micron in kettle/basket shapes with stand-off legs to boil with right in pot and press out with a stainless steel press plate made to your kettle size.
Did you mean post fermentation?
No we distill on grain. I suspect a 4 mesh would work post-fermentation as well - this is a very wide mesh - you'll get small solids through. Anything smaller and it'll immediately blind the screen or perf plate.
4 mesh is like 5000 micron, 3/16 open, about 5mm.
@grim so do you remove the grains after distillation to sell to farmers for feed?
Sell? No they take it for free.
A local farmer collects all spent grains from a local brewery. Knowing the brewery, I am sure he pays something.
None the less he buys at the cattle auction, the worst and leanest cows. He pays next to nothing for them.
In the next 3 months he feeds them on spent grains and then returns them back to the auction.
The cows are unbelievably changed and he is commended on fine animals and accordingly gets a very high price.
A quick thought for those whom want an alternative form of easy income.
If you can get paid, do a little jig, sing a song, you don't know how good you've got it.
I wouldn't bank on it, just finding someone to reliably pickup and haul off is a small victory.
I wouldn't sell it to anyone, even if I had a chance, because when you sell someone something, along with that comes the liability for it. Last thing I need is someone to kill a cow by feeding them nothing but spent grain for a week, and then have that on me because I sold them bad feed and now I owe them a couple thousand bucks for vet bills and a dead cow.
The problem is the same on a small scale. Was the same with me with chicken and pig farmers. The grain would sit there for a couple days cause they forgot, were too busy, the kids were crook....then it'd stink and anoy the neighbours and i'd still have to find some way to get rid of it but now it's rank.
Reliable haul away, same or next day is something that should be cultivated and if ou get a bag of chops every now and then you're laughing. If the farmer makes a buck from your waste well that's something to celebrate and have a beer with him.
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So after you ferment on the grains do you then remove the grains and let the beer sit a day to settle the remaining yeast before distilling or it's not a big deal to distill with some yeast in the beer? I'm using a 4500watt heating element.
After I press the grain the beer goes right into boiler. I heat up with 2 5500 elements with no problems
@bachman thanks for the info!
My BIAB batch was almost the same size as yours. I didn't BIAB, I scooped the mash into a bag and squeezed just a couple of kilos at a time. It was a pain in the arse but it worked.
Our farmer is not willing to yet take on additional animals - he previously had a relationship with a bakery that was providing him with stale/unsold bread and other baked goods. He took on a much larger number of animals, based on the free feed supply. Unfortunately, the baker went out of business, and he was left having to feed the additional animals out of pocket - and took losses as a result (he doesn't have the economies of scale to compete with other larger local producers).
Like I said, this is a two way street - don't think that some spent grain is giving the other party money in the bank - it's not free when they need to invest the time and money to transport it, and the larger herd represents a significant liability before they can get butchered. You do it because it's good karma, because distilling is awful for the environment, and this alternative is a little less bad. Even better when the other guy is a little business, trying to make ends meet.