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Rye Whiskey Mash - Help


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Does anyone have experience making rye whiskey? If so, can you describe some of the major differences in mash bill or procedure that made a successful rye?

After two extremely low-yield batches, I am scouring for resources on rye whiskey. I have not had much luck finding detailed information. If you know of any good books, journals, or websites on rye whiskey (particularly the mash) please let me know.

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You need malt, stepped temperatures held for a period, 40c, 50c, 60c. Then a grain bed of husks are not possible with hulless rye, so you have to add rice hulls.

You need either malt with enough diastatic power to convert the rye(enzymatic activity), or synthetic enzymes.

I've never made a big batch but I've seen onenlock up and turn into ryecrete and you basically pour on enzymes and it starts to disintegrate over 10-30/minute.

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Good morning,

We mash about 2000g of Rye per week and the summary of our recipe is below, batch sizes are 1000g.

  • Ground Rye Flour, 2:1 flour to water. 2000lbs/1000g
  • No malts, all conversion is handled via Enzymes.
  • Top temp is about 187F
  • We rest at various temps and pH as called out by the enzyme manufacturer for optimal yield.
  • Enzymes:
    • Cellulase (Beta-Glucan) Enzyme
    • Amylase Enzmye
    • Saccarification Enzyme
  • Total mash time on our system is about 5-6 hours.
  • Average ABV post fermentation 11-12%.
  • No lautering, all grain-on distillation.

When you're done, prior to pitching yeast, your mash should be the consistency a heavy wheat beer, very sugary and sweet.

Cheers,

McKee

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John, what's the Beta-Glucan doing for you? We use about 20% corn to start with and hitempase enzyme holding for about an hour before we drop in our rye grist. Seems to work fine as we are getting a ferment at about 10%.

Just wondering if I am missing something?

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http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1063

Rye is known to have high beta glucans and those cause mash to become too thick to do anything with. The only option is enzymes added and slowly breaking down the viscosity.

#1 problem with rye. Using malt is also a possibility but if your first few tries it may be worth having some enzyme around to save your equipment.

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John, what's the Beta-Glucan doing for you? We use about 20% corn to start with and hitempase enzyme holding for about an hour before we drop in our rye grist. Seems to work fine as we are getting a ferment at about 10%.

Just wondering if I am missing something?

You may have noticed I have posted over several years about my problems getting enough yield from rye so I am following with interest.

Is hitempase your only enzyme? I have tried it and could not get a consistent increase.

What temperature is it when rye has been added?

Thanks

Pete

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Hey all,

To clarify, our Rye is a 100% rye whiskey, no corn....so some of this may not be as helpful if your recipe contains corn.

Our enzymes and their optimal usage:

  • Laminex C2K, 140F, 4.5 pH (during heat up) *Note, added to base water at 65F, prior to grain introduction.
  • Amylex 4T, 178F, 5.8 pH (during heat up)
  • Diazyme SSF2, 149F, 4.5 pH (during cool down)

More on our choice of enzymes from the manufacturer website. http://www.danisco.com/product-range/food-enzymes/brewing-enzymes/laminexr/

Cheers,

McKee

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  • 3 years later...
On 6/17/2015 at 10:20 AM, John McKee said:

Mendo,

We use phosphoric acid for the pH adjustments.

Cheers,

McKee

Old post, but curious to know: how much phosphoric acid, what change in pH (from, to) resulted?

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/8/2015 at 11:09 AM, John McKee said:

Good morning,

We mash about 2000g of Rye per week and the summary of our recipe is below, batch sizes are 1000g.

  • Ground Rye Flour, 2:1 flour to water. 2000lbs/1000g
  • ...
  • Average ABV post fermentation 11-12%.
  • No lautering, all grain-on distillation.

 

I was reviewing this thread, as we are having some rye problems in our lab this past week.   And after a little consideration there SEEMS to be an error here.  I know John well enough to know that he is a  bright & honest & very  technical guy,  so ....

1000gal at 11%-12% ABV is 110 to 120 gallon of pure ethanol.

A gallon of pure ethanol is 64.859 mol of ethanol, requiring fermentation of 32.43 mol of glucose equivalent fermentable or 12.88 lbs of sugar.

So 110 gal of EtOH requires fermentation of 1416 lb of fermentables.  Further there is quite close to 3% loss to yeast mass, so  at least 1460 fermentable carbs. from 2000lb or rye !

That is not happenin'.  Even some beta-glucans hydrolysis can't ge  t you there.   11% in the above would be 459LA/metric on, which equals top top commercial conversions for maize.

If you happen to trip across this old thread John, how long a rest do you do for the Laminex C2K ?     We have been having great success with the Amylex 5T & SSF2, but we need to work

out the rye/C2K.

 

 

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