Millet, Bananas, and Promalt

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igliashon

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Today I brewed up my first batch with the Promalt enzyme cocktail, which contains beta-glucanase, protease, and both alpha- and beta-amylase. I did a mash with 3 lbs of bananas and 2 lbs of millet, and I can't really say the results I got were a whole lot better than when I've used amylase on its own. I got about 55% efficiency after doing a 2-hour cereal mash (held between 190 and 175), followed by a 3-step infusion mash, BIAB-style. The Promalt was added after the cereal mash, once the temp had dropped to the temperature of the first rest. My rests were 15 minutes at 120, 15 minutes at 135, and 45 minutes at 150. I stirred frequently, as directed. I probably should have rested longer at each stage, but that would have required me to brew late into the night, so I kinda had to rush. However, from what I know of BIAB techniques, the thinner mash brings with it more rapid enzyme activity, so it seemed like a safe procedure to shorten the rests. I used the full volume of water for the infusion, calculated so that after removing the grains, I had about 3.5 gallons of wort for the boil. The millet I crushed in a corona mill, and the bananas I froze overnight and then pureed. My pre-boil gravity was 1.028; after adding a pound of sorghum LME at flame-out, my OG was 1.040, about .006 lower than I had calculated at my preliminary estimate of 60% efficiency. The wort was very thick and milky and there was a TON of hot break material, and straining the grains out (even with lots of rice hulls) was quite difficult. Perhaps the bananas are to blame; I don't want to draw any conclusions about the Promalt just yet. Next week I'm going to try a rice blend and see how that goes. We'll see how this beer turns out; I do recall that my early attempt at using bananas and sweet potatoes as an enzyme source to convert wild rice and corn yielded a similar milky wort, with a LOT of trub, but the 2 gallons of finished beer I was able to get out of it were very good. So, I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic at this point.
 
Did the bananas and sweet potato convert the rice and corn by themselves? Or, did you add enzymes to that one as well?

On a somewhat related topic, pureed over-ripe frozen bananas make a great dairy/gluten free ice cream substitute.
 
You really swing for the fences on these experiments! I love it!
Questions. Isn't the cereal mash too hot for the enzymes? I thought I read somewhere they are destroyed around 75C (167F) I know you need to gelatinize the starch at a high temperature, but wouldn't you add the enzymes after that? Or have I misunderstood what you have done? I'm a noob.
 
To clarify:

Enzymes were added AFTER the cereal mash (I'm going to edit the main post to reflect this), at 120°F (first rest).

My prior experiment with sweet potatoes, bananas, corn, and wild rice, was an attempt to use only the endogenous enzymes of the potatoes and bananas. It did not succeed in converting the corn and wild rice as far as I could tell, but it did seem to contribute some sugars (probably those endogenous to the sweet potato and bananas).
 
Very exciting! with some tweaking you should be able to get better conversion rates though for the most part I use a tun and do a continuous sparge. As for the milkiness I had problems with that at first too but by adjusting my sparge and my filter and rests I was able to clear it up quite a bit though it ferments out clear regardless. Try changing up your rest times, a longer rest for the protease and beta glucanase will free up a lot of the starches and get rid of some of the haze your seeing. I have found that the time varies for each grain type.
 
Crap crap crap, this beer got an infection in the bottles! You can see a big cloud of stuff near the bottom, which is NOT just yeast sediment, because it's hanging out in bottles that haven't been moved in weeks. Some of 'em have dark splotches. I can't smell or taste right now because of the flu, but I am certain enough that this is bad. Guess I haven't been taking care of my bottling equipment...time to break out the bleach, LOL.
 
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