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Trouble with TG in Corn Whiskey Recipie


brandon8198

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I am having trouble with obtaining my desired TG. I am making a 25L batch of 80% corn and 20% barley. I am using a whiskey yeast strain that is formulated for a 25L batch. I seem to be following all the recipies and doing lots of experimentation, but not resulting in the best ABV yield. My SG is starting around or at 1.065, but the best TG I can get seems to be 1.026 after 72-80 hours.

Here is my recipie if any one has any suggestions.

23L Municipal Tap water

3/4 tsp cirtic acid to 5.8 PH

2 tsp gypsum

7L flaked maize Corn

1.5L malted 6 row barley

1 1tsp gluco-alymase

Thanks,

Brandon

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I recommend this forum for that size of a grain bill http://homedistiller.org/

Hopefully you live in New Zealand or have a DSP in the states or the country you live in, that way what you are doing is legal.

Here's a tip, check to see if your yeast has any holes in their "PANTS".

P: Ph level is off

A: Aeration didn't happen

N: Nutrients missing

T: Temperature is off

S: Sugars missing (Fructose, Glucose, Sucrose)

Or, use a yeast that goes down to zero like a champaign yeast. It sounds like you maybe used a beer yeast.

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I am only mashing and by now way distilling. I am just experimenting with different mashing techniques and then discarding it. I know it sounds like a waste of money, but it's the only way I can experiment. I am pretty sure I covered all my basis on the P-A-N-T-S acronym. I was reading some things that say the PH is supposed to drop after adding the grains. It seems to me that the PH tends to rise to around 7.0 after the grains are added. Should that be happening? Also the grain I have is suposed to be a distilling whiskey strain and from what I understand it shoud finish with a TG of around 1.000. Do you think I should be adding more nutrients, due to the fact that I am using tap water?

I know it sounds like I am a novice, that's because I am. I have tried to do all my homework, read, experiment (leagally) and I'm in the process of attending some classes. I really appreciate all the help. Thanks.

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Why not use it to make beer? Don't waste it. I'd focus on home brewing beer and get that dialed. If you can make a good beer from scratch then you're half way to making a good whiskey. You could also buy some white dog at the liquor store and practice aging it on oak. That's a whole art onto itself, seeing that 70-80% of whiskey character comes from oak aging.

Mash Ph should be low 5's or middle 4's. Did you do an iodine test to make sure all your starches converted in your mash? What was your mash temp? How long did it mash at that temp for? You should be using filtered water, city water can have some funky stuff in it that can stick a ferment. Try making a yeast bomb or try different yeast.

Personally, I'd pitch some champaign yeast and see if it zero's out. You could have gotten a bad batch of yeast too.

You have to learn somehow, homebrewing beer and aging white dog is a good place to start.

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-Water to 165 degrees then corn is added

-At 152 degrees I added the milled malted 6 row as well as the gluco-alymase

-I try to keep the temp as close to 145 degrees during a 90 minute cycle which usually results around 1.060 - 1.068 SG

I did not do a starch test, but I have a good refractometer. I will deffinetely try using filtered or better quality water. Any recommendations on a good quality champaign yeast? Is it common for the PH to rise after the grain is added?

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I am having trouble with obtaining my desired TG. I am making a 25L batch of 80% corn and 20% barley. I am using a whiskey yeast strain that is formulated for a 25L batch. I seem to be following all the recipies and doing lots of experimentation, but not resulting in the best ABV yield. My SG is starting around or at 1.065, but the best TG I can get seems to be 1.026 after 72-80 hours.

While not great, what you got is not that bad, if you are keeping grain in. We typically start in the high 1.060s and end about 1.22 using whiskey-specific yeast, with or without the use of amylase. We use 82+% flaked corn and a mixture of barley and rye malts. We find it takes 72 hours minimum to ferment on grain, sometimes it takes another couple days. I would avoid champaign yeast, it might give you more complete fermentation, but it will give you a completely different flavor profile that I would not think appropriate for whiskey. You might just try letting it ferment a bit longer, if it hasn't given up the ghost. You shouldn't need nutrients. You might have to correct pH if it is getting very high at the start.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey Brandon,

Looks like you have a few things that could be addressed, that others have already mentioned.

1. pH check - as referenced earlier the mid 5s is ideal, and you are close enough...

2. Looks to me like the starch in your corn may or may not be getting liquefied. bluestar is using "flaked corn" which has been processed to where the starch is more available. Your whole corn might need to be boiled for a bit to get all that starch into solution for the malted barely to work on it, 30min or so.

3. You may need to supplement with more malted barley... Also as mentioned, Iodine tests are great.

4. Glucoamylase tops out around 145-150 F, so be careful if adding it at that temperature, you could be killing it if the whole mash temperature is not as uniform as you think. Possibly add it at a lower temp, it works down into fermentation temps and pH's.

5. Nutrients never hurt the yeast, but your turboyeast might already have them included.

6. Keep in mind you are making a whiskey, so not finishing out to completion will allow some more complexities to carry over into the distillate. Not trying to knock enzymes, but using them does not always produce the best flavor profile... Though it does produce the highest efficiencies. Try to weigh which you want more, or bring it to "acceptable" levels.

Most of this has been mentioned already, but a couple new things in there might be of assistance.

SEB

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