adamOVD

So sorry. How infuriating.

Hey Paul, this is the thread I had mentioned in the email I sent the other day. Thanks.

Id try to pitch nutrient (FAN) in the next batch. I don't think unmalted wheat has enough for a healthy ferment. I would guess the high acidity is coming from the acid being produced by the lacto or whatever infection that is souring your mash. Your yeast still seems to be active at 3.5 though.

Thanks, It never really made in any sense to me, but I've always refrained from mixing a mash with a drill anyways. I probably still will.

I heard a few years ago someone was badly burned because he was mixing his mash in the fermenter with a drill and the ethanol in the head space caused an explosion. Is this true?

Can you use cooling water in the jacket in conjunction with your OSPM?

Is your wheat malted? If not are you using nutrients? That could have something to do with with the low attenuation, but I'm not sure why your Ph would finish so low. Most grains work pretty well as buffers just by themselves. 4.5 after day 1 seems right to me. Does the fermented mash have any lactic acid sourness to it? How long is the ferment active? Where does it finish?

Super interesting. Guess my agitator is not placed ideally. I definitely get a vortex, and now I know what the side fin that makes cleaning such a pain is for.

Thanks for chiming in! Its just a distilled IPA from a local brewery. By the way what would you use the "other" line for? Ill send an email to the TTB, but replies have been pretty slow even before the government shut downs.

I decided to report it under 'Alcohol under 190". Maybe someone like @dhdunbar can set me straight, but I'm pretty sure the TTB has bigger issues right now than where my 30 proof gallons gets reported.

On the production report would you report a distilled specialty spirit that was distilled under 190 proof Under the "other", or "alcohol and spirits" and then "under 190"? Thanks.

@Florida Cracker. It's just a cheap burr grinder off ebay. Supposed to be for coffee. Mills super slow. Will see how how long the motor lasts. But it can mill wheat and barley and to almost a flour in a single pass, and is way cheaper than a roller or hammer mill. Mills about 100#s an hour. My custom stand works bitchin though.

I just did a batch of wheat whiskey. I have 185F water and mashed in with that. My thinking was that since I didn't have any corn in the mash bill, I could reach gel temps without having to heat at all. Can confirm, dough ball spear fishing and steam facials.

Thanks indyspirits. Can't wait till i get things more figured out and don't have to stress out over every decision, and developing new products is more fun.

Yeah I've read a few enzyme protocols where they say to add high temp enzymes at 190F, which seams like it would be too late at that point. Even more so after reading what @delta H had to say about thermostability One more question, is it easier to keep the mash liquid by milling the grain coarser or finer? I fabricated a mill stand and hopper last week I think is pretty cool.

@delta H Gotcha, Thanks for the dumbed down explanation.

Are you saying that even if you pitch a high temp enzyme outside it's optimal temperature range it still functions to a certain degree? And here are you saying a mash can still get pretty gummy at 165F? Thanks again for your insights.

Thanks for the input @delta H. I need to put in an order with BSG, and I was trying to decide if I needed to buy glucanase or not. Guess I need to do a trial batch with and without to see if/ how much the yield improves. I'll do two batches, one as described above, and then another with glucanase pitched at 140F, then raised to 152ish F for converting to see what the difference in yields are.

I'm doing a whiskey with mostly wheat and a little bit of specialty malt. I did few small test batches and I just mashed in with really hot water, the mash temp ended up about 165F. I adjusted the PH and added some hitempase to try to keep things liquid. I let it cool to 150F, adjusted temp again and pitched Amylo 300, then held the temp for conversion. Grain was milled to a flour. I did not use a high glucan enzyme, mostly because I didn't have any easily available. I have a couple questions. 1) Is it a waste to use the hitempase as I'm not cooking the grains? 2) If did use a high glucan enzyme like bioglucanase would it also be a waste and just be denatured since I'm mashing in so hot? 3) Will I convert more sugars and get a better yield using bioglucanse? I everything stayed pretty liquid and fermented fine with the small batches, but I am about to do a full production run. Thanks so much.

I'll ask the brewery if they use anti foam during their boil as well. Their beer might benefit from doing so, or boiling longer to remove more of those proteins.

I think you're on to something. If I do this again I'll try without the anti foam, and hopefully the beer won't be carbonated.

I did. The beer was carbonated so I thought it was necessary. I have heard it assists in more protein precipitation though.

The debate on still head shape and lyne arms goes back thousands of years. My personal thoughts are that unless you are using your still like a pot still for making whiskeys and whatnot it doesn't matter that much. For a gin i'm sure it makes a difference, but not as much your botanical selection and infusion method. Probably not even as much as your heat source. If you are only making gin from GNS there is no need for a column as your alcohol is already separated to over 95%. However, I've been thinking lately if you could increase your yield at the end of a gin run by using reflux just at the end of the botanical run to hold back the too earthy botanicals in your "tails" cut.

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for all your input on this forum. Hopefully you'll still be around.

Does the butyric acid not come through in the distillation? That stuff is seriously disgusting.