Jump to content

Sacchareligious

Members
  • Posts

    7
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Sacchareligious

  1. I would just assume the highest concentration of glycyrrhizin in the root and then do some quick math to see how close you are to 1% glycyrrhizin in your product... If it is indeed 50x the sweetness of sucrose, you shouldn't even approach 1% glycyrrhizin unless you're making an alcoholic simple syrup.
  2. Unfortunately, the best way to determine quality is to just get some samples in hand. Botanicals can vary substantially between batches, region, storage conditions... if you haven't dabbled in contrasting different batches of ingredients, it's a great exercise that really takes you quite close to some flavors that you may have thought you already understood. As a small facility, we've certainly struggled at times with scaling up and duplicating recipes. In our experience the cheapest botanicals are not necessarily of the highest quality.
  3. Did you experience a serious off-flavor from the pits? Or were you more concerned with HCN levels?
  4. Think of aroma as a chemical's lack of attraction to a liquid. Lots of aroma compounds have a high affinity for non-polar solvents, like ethanol. As such they are tightly retained in a spirit with very high proof. On the converse, many aromas are less soluble in water. And adding such can decrease their retention in the bulk liquid and allow them to enter the headspace for detection as an aroma compound. This is one reason why a spirit's proof is less than a trivial number. By changing the proof, one can adjust the balance of compounds that enter the headspace and thereby affect how it's perceived.
  5. Howdy folks, We are working on a product that will likely have quite a bit more than 600mg of solids per 100mL volume. I'm aware that this will make proofing pretty difficult by distillation. I'm wondering what others are using to determine proof in liquids with lots of dissolved solids? I'm aware that there are some approved procedures mentioned in the CFR, however does anyone have thoughts on the definition of a "laboratory still"? We have a small rotary evaporator that could increase surface area and make distilling alcohol out of this sludge a bit easier. However, since it's not a closed-system (because it has a vacuum pump pulling ), I'm unsure if a unit like this fits the requirements of the CFR. Anyone using a rota-vap out there? Thoughts for us?
  6. Thanks so for the input, folks. And apologies for my delayed response; it's truly incredible how important stuff like mash/fermentation efficiency can get pushed to the back on a big project like this. I am currently using 6-row distiller's grain in 30% with the rest being unmalted barley. We are currently milling test batches with a hand crank monster mill. I'm unsure of the final grind size, but we tighten the gap on each grind and pass it through 3 or 4 times. Then we do a cereal mash w/o mash-out and distill on the grain. Our barley is from a regional malthouse who found it wasn't exactly ideal for malting. I believe it had poor germination. Unfortunately I'm unsure of the variety and did not request analysis on it before it was on-site. Live and learn... I am currently getting a bit more than 26 ppg off of the mash with a pretty involved mash regime. I suppose it could be a lot worse, but it's still throwing our numbers off a fair bit. Hopefully our roller mill will be operational soon and we can try a finer grind on it. Getting up around 27-28 ppg seems reasonable. MDH, It's funny you mention koji fungus as I've been thinking a lot about it lately. Any idea if those big outfits ferment all their raw grains with it, or just small portions? mendodistilling, thanks for the input on maintaining a reliable SG. But I'm curious, as I look at our cooker I'm a bit surprised there isn't some kind of float or something that indicates volume. Do you guys nail your volumes by flow meter? This really is an incredible community on this site. I look forward to being a bigger part in it.
  7. Hey folks, I've been gearing up to produce some whiskey from unmalted barley. I've done a few very small test mashes so far and the results have been a little disappointing. My efficiency is traditionally good with corn and rye but these have been really reluctant to give me what I'm looking for. Some details: - I'm trying for a ~28 gallon beer (5 lbs grain w/ 2.2 gallons water up front for a final volume of 2.5 gallons wash) - I'm gelating above 190 for nearly an hour - have tried both 10% & 30% malt additions - have tried to reduce viscosity with "rests" at ~105 and 130 (tho given mash thickness, I probably didn't wait long enough) I eventually saw conversion pick up when I finally bumped my saccharification temp up to ~150, but in the end I still got much lower extraction than I do on corn and rye. I have not done a starch test yet, though the wort does look turbid throughout the mash. I've assumed this cloudiness is from a protein-rich batch of grain. I have stirred these mashes as I normally do, which is every 20 or so mins. I'm curious if an abundance of protein/glucan can congest the wort to a point where conversion is compromised? Are the enzymes likely to just get bogged down like that? At this point, I might try using the 30% malt in three additions: 3% premalt, 13.5% at start of mash schedule, then another 13.5% after 145 deg saccharification. I'm thinking with this last addition I can extend conversion into the high 150s w/o worrying about denaturing things too quickly. I'm running out of ideas on this and would like to figure it out without hightempase or such. Are there any particular tricks to mashing unmalted barley (and other protein-rich grains)? Clearly the Irish make it work, and I'm guessing they don't use enzymes either. Cheers!
×
×
  • Create New...