Mashing Grain Sorghum

[Pofarmer]

I am going to do a 100% Grain Sorghum Mash with Enzymes.  I can find scant information on Mash procedures.  Basically, I intend to treat it like Corn.  Anyone with any Experience? The Alpha Amalyse that I use says get the water at temperature of 190F and add, then add grain and let rest until starch conversion is complete. It recommends and hour but it usually doesn't take that long.  Then I'll cool, at Gluco and pitch.  I'm using Ferm Solutions products, if that matters.

 

Thanks.

[Kindred Spirits]

The Geletanization point of sorghum starch is from 68-72 degrees C, so I would at least bring it up to 75C for about 30 mins, do a iodine test, and then see how the conversion goes, if not fully converted go another 15 mins and test again.

I typically split my Alpha on the heat up and the cool down, overdosing slightly, that way you can be sure the alpha won't denature if you accidently bring the temp up too high. This has worked great with my clients making bourbon. 

Once it cools to your gluco temp, pitch and hold that for another 30 mins minimum, then finish the cool down, aerate, and pitch your yeast.

If you are using a "heirloom" sorghum, it might pay to do a couple small scale trials to make sure you get it dialed in, as I have found with heirloom grains they can  need some tweaks from the standard varieities. 

[JustAndy]

The grain is really tiny if you are milling it, we used a sorghum milled into flour. We mashed it just like 100% rye which worked fine, similar to the scheme you laid out. Mashing into hot water leads to a lot more dough balling compared to adding grain and flour at lower temp and then raising the temp with cooking but it's not a problem at our scale.  

[Kindred Spirits]

You might also need to add some beta-glucanase to keep it from gelling too.

[Silk City Distillers]

Full enzyme mash will work just fine.

You do need to mill the sorghum well to get good conversion.  Pseudo-cereals don't give up their starch as readily as typical grains.  You could boil whole sorghum for more than an hour and still not get good results.