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Mashing in the still?


Badbadger

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Hi,

I am wondering if anyone has tried, or regularly does, mashing-in in their still? We are primarily a malt whiskey producer with the associated pot stills, but also have a Holstein for gin, whiskey, fruit brandy and stuff. Our mash tun is for the single malt, fermenting off the grain. We would like to try a rye whiskey or bourbon type mash bill and can either use the mash tun and ferment off the grain (I know the difficulties lautering corn / rye, but our brewer reckons he can do it), or as we have no other mashing equipment we could potentially use our Holstein as a mash tun, fermenter and then still as it could act as a cooker etc. I have no idea if this is possible, but again, our brewer likes a challenge and wants to try. Any ideas or experience of doing this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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We did that when we started, mashing in the still pot. Key is having a good agitator in the still to move the thick mash and get adequate heating. And it is helpful if you can remove the column. But ultimately, it made sense to get a dedicated mash tun. But don't use it as a fermenter, unless your tank is stainless. I don't think the long term contact of the acidic mash with copper is a good idea for the still or the fermentation. You did not say how big your still was, but polyethylene fermenters are adequate up to 200 gal, and better than fermenting in the still.

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Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies. Greatly appreciated.

Our still is 500 litres (sorry, even as an ex-pat American over here in the UK I have been indoctrinated with litres and kilos so not great thinking in terms of gallons). As we are primarily making single malt that is the main focus, and our Holstein is currently only used for 5 days a month for gin, so that is why we were thinking to ferment etc in it as time wouldn't be a big issue as we would only be doing maybe one batch of rye whisky a month.

I am thinking as I type this so might not be a good idea, but perhaps we could mash-in in the still, then pump to an IBC for fermenting (the pump on the Holstein is the only real solids pump we have), then put back in the still after fermentation? The still does have an impeller which I am hoping would keep the stuff moving.

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If you're doing a single malt I think you're going to want to lauter. At least that's what the boys up north do.

Yes, malt whiskey is best to lauter. We do on grain for all of our whiskey EXCEPT the malt whiskey.

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Sorry, I wasn't clear with what I meant. We do lauter the single malt. I was just meaning that as the single malt is the main part of the business, and is run using our dedicated Forsyths stills, the Holstein still is largely unused, and so tying it up with a mash / fermentation would not be a problem time-wise for us.

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So, yes, mash in the still, but pump out to ferment, pump back to distill. But if you are lautering somewhere, why don't you mash where you lauter? Most mash tuns can have the screen removed so you don't have to lauter. Eventually, though, you might want to just get a small tun for the small still, and actually any 150g stainless tank will do.

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We partly mash in our still but it is inconvenient and we will eventually move to a mash tun. We mash the primary grains in our larger still, pump over to the fermenter (has cooling coils) and then drop the temperature to add our malt and then drop further before adding the yeast. Not a very easy system but it works for now.

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  • 5 months later...

Unfortunately our Kothe mash tun imploded (FYI Kothe gives you zero support). We did our bourbon mash out of our still for 6 months and it worked just fine, unfortunately it was just half the volume. We would pump to a separate jacketed tank to cool. Have to say though, very happy to have our new MT. We went with Korson and they are fantastic.

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Unfortunately our Kothe mash tun imploded (FYI Kothe gives you zero support). We did our bourbon mash out of our still for 6 months and it worked just fine, unfortunately it was just half the volume. We would pump to a separate jacketed tank to cool. Have to say though, very happy to have our new MT. We went with Korson and they are fantastic.

Can you provide some more details on how and why your Kothe mash tun imploded?

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Probably the lack of a vacuum relief on the steam jacket. When you shut off the steam, a vacuum can occur as it cools. I also have a Corson mash tun and agree that they, and their equip/support is fantastic

Sometimes it is a maintenance issue. Vacuum release valves are notorious for getting stuck as they get older. You MUST regularly check, clean, adjust, and if necessary replace your pressure and vacuum release valves. If you don't have one, add a pressure gauge to your jacket, so you know before you blow!

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