Mash Cooker Manufacturers

[mendodistilling]

I am looking for corn and grain processing systems, I've looked at brewery equipment but I'm afraid that I will need different equipment to handle corn because of how it will sparge through a false bottom. What have any of you found out there for processing corn and possibly grain as well?

[jwymore]

I have kind of been looking at this but pretty expensive. Researching getting something similar fabbed locally. It does not have a screen though, designed for doing grain in fermentations.

http://www.kothecomp...talog/item/test

I have been doing some small scale experiments and it seems like corn meal doesn't work that good through a screen and flaked corn pretty much not at all. Would be interested in hearing if other folks are doing corn without grain in ferment and how they are getting the grain separated efficiently.

A little more information here: http://www.kothe-distilling.com

[SwellSpirits]

How about adding rice hulls? This would allow you to lauter/sparge through the grain bed. I know it works for rye when making roggenbier. I assume it would work for corn mashes too.

[Lenny]

The majority of brewery style mashtuns will have a false bottom that can go in/out through the clean-out manway in pieces (usually around 4 pieces). You could certainly source this style of mashtun and remove the lauter plate to have it function more as a cereal cooker — you'd probably be well off to have a larger port (3-4") welded to the botom to allow for dumping and easy removal of mash from the tank. Also, it would be worth looking into the size of the steam jacket (assuming you're looking for a jacketed tank) to be sure that it's capable of bringing the mash temp upwards of 100c.

If you have no intention producing a whiskey that would benefit from lautering then skip the false bottom. Corn doesn't benefit from lautering.

I've been working with Mike Rolle at Glacier Tank to have a few things for our distillery built in China — here's an example of one of the mashtuns they provide, which could easily double as a cereal cooker with a few tweaks: http://www.glaciertanks.com/Mash_Tuns-Mash_Tun_10_BBL_Commercial_Steam_Motor.html

For domestically built equipment, I received pretty good pricing on a mt from Marks Metal Works: http://www.marksdmw.com/

Regarding the rice hull thing... I've tried it with flaked corn. It kinda worked but not an awesome experience. Also tried it with unmalted wheat and rye. The wheat lautered the best but was still painfully slow to run off.