"Corn Beer" First All Grain...

On Sunday I woke up and decided I was going to brew my first all grain batch of beer. I brewed my very first batch (extract kit) one month ago. I brewed an Blonde Ale extract brew that had steeping grains on this past Thursday. I brewed an Oatmeal Stout on Friday that was a Partial Mash kit, and then on Sunday I brewed my first All Grain batch of beer. I used a relatively small grain bill because my brew kettle is only 8 gallons, and I do not have a good mash tun... YET! (I used my bottling bucket, and I used tiling tape to tape in a mesh bag over the spigot). I used 6 lbs. of 6-row and 3 lbs of cracked raw field corn. I cracked the corn with a hammer so some was really smashed and others didn't get cracked. Some of you may be wondering why I wanted to use corn, because it sounds like corn has a bad rep. in the brewing world, but I live in Iowa and I wanted to make beer with our own home grown corn. I did a cereal with the corn and 1 lbs of the 6-row. I just put in enough water to cover all of the grains by about 2 inches. Proceeded to heat the mixture up to 160* where I let it rest for 10 mins. I then boiled for 30 mins. I drained off the liquid in the pot that I was going to use to head up my strike water (3 gallons @ 170*) and placed the grains that were boiled as well as the remaining 5 lbs of 6-row in my bottling bucket. I poured the strike water in and wrapped the bucket in a blanket within a sleeping bag to hold heat. After an hour I recirculated and then began slowly drawing off the wort into my brew kettle. I heated up my sparge water (3 gallons heated between 175*-180*) and kept the level of water 2 inches above the grain bed. I managed to draw out about 3/4 of the wort before I got a stuck sparge. I ended up having to just strain off the rest of the liquid from the grains and added it to my brew kettle. I boiled for an hour with hops and then cooled and added to the fermenter. I got a hydrometer reading of 1.038. I know it is not a very big beer but I was happy it read anything over 1.000! I pitched some dry Safale -05 yeast and the airlock began bubbling 5 hours after pitching yeast. Do you think I got a lower hydrometer reading because of my small grain bill? Because of the stuck sparge? Sorry for the long winded post, just thought someone else might find the info interesting or beneficial.

Thanks guys!

How well was the 6 row crushed? Also sounds like you had whole pieces of corn as well. My guess is inadequate crush? Whole kernels of corn will contribute little to the mash.

Next time try a corn grinder, or perhaps a blender to get the corn in small pieces, and be sure it is well cooked prior to the mash.

I don't have a grain crusher so I just ordered the grain from Morebeer.com and chose to have them crush it. I tried to use a coffee grinder to crush the corn but it kept getting stuck on some of the whole pieces of corn. I thought about the blender, but I didn't know if it would ruin it... dull the blade, burn up the motor, etc. Thanks for the reply and suggestions!

Assuming a 5 gallon batch you should have been in the low 1.050's for OG with that grain bill. I would suspect the corn is the issue because 1.038 is precisely what you would get with only 6 pounds of 6-row and no corn.

Yes I was making a 5 gallon batch. Have you used raw corn in any of your recipes? What would you suggest that I do differently next time?When I say not all of the corn was cracked/crushed, I mean like 1 out of every 20 or 30 kernels... Should I find a way to grind it even more? Would that help?

wilserbrewer said:

How well was the 6 row crushed? Also sounds like you had whole pieces of corn as well. My guess is inadequate crush? Whole kernels of corn will contribute little to the mash.

Next time try a corn grinder, or perhaps a blender to get the corn in small pieces, and be sure it is well cooked prior to the mash.

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Other than getting a better crush, what would you suggest to make sure that the corn is "well cooked prior to the mash?" Is what I did not good enough? What should I have done differently?

Thanks!

I would grind it very fine then do a good cereal mash. The alternative is to use flaked corn which can be used in the mash directly.

If it is not ground up well, and is still in larger pieces, you could try and cook the heck out of it so it resembles creamed corn or a "mush". You need to have it in a state that the enzymes in the barley can reach the starch in the corn to convert it into sugars...simply put. How did it appear in the mash? Like broken pieces of corn? Crushing with a hammer is very much less than ideal I would imagine.

If ya can't crush it well...I would cook the crap out of it prior to the mash w/ barley! You need to break the corn down into smaller pieces one way or another!!! Otherwise it will be difficult to convert! You also need the 6-row barley to be well crushed w/ NO whole pieces of grain!!!

Good luck!!!

wilserbrewer said:

If it is not ground up well, and is still in larger pieces, you could try and cook the heck out of it so it resembles creamed corn or a "mush". You need to have it in a state that the enzymes in the barley can reach the starch in the corn to convert it into sugars...simply put. How did it appear in the mash? Like broken pieces of corn? Crushing with a hammer is very much less than ideal I would imagine.

If ya can't crush it well...I would cook the crap out of it prior to the mash w/ barley! You need to break the corn down into smaller pieces one way or another!!! Otherwise it will be difficult to convert! You also need the 6-row barley to be well crushed w/ NO whole pieces of grain!!!

Good luck!!!

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Alrighty, I guess I will see how this one turns out and give 'er another shot! Thanks for all of the help!