Proportions to avoid stuck sparge?

So, I am planning on doing a corn/barley mash on my mash/lauter tun. The plan is to try and make a Bourbon from it eventually. I know Bourbon needs to be at least 51% corn, so it would be nice to get to at least that level, however, I have never used this much corn in a recipe before. What proportions can I used before I start running into stuck sparge issues?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Rice hulls will help to avoid a stuck sparge.

Pie_Man said:

Rice hulls will help to avoid a stuck sparge.

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Yea, I know rice hulls will help, I was just hoping to avoid rice hulls all together anyhow much cracked corn I could put in before needing rice hulls.

Why do you want to avoid rice hulls? I use them in every mash, because why not.

I'm not sure, I've never brewed with corn before. I guess part of that would depend on your water to grist ratio. I'm also not sure why you're opposed to using rice hulls.

Xpertskir said:

Why do you want to avoid rice hulls? I use them in every mash, because why not.

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Ttwo reasons:

1. I will already be at the capacity of my mash tun. Every bit of rice ull that goes in means something else has to come out.
2. It is one more thing to buy that adds nothing to the end product.

Ok...Well it doesnt add nothing. It adds insurance against a stuck sparge, which is no fun. Good luck regardless

You might want to research this further. The "traditional" recipes for what you are asking generally leave everything in the fermenter and avoid sparging completely.

billl said:

You might want to research this further. The "traditional" recipes for what you are asking generally leave everything in the fermenter and avoid sparging completely.

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Yea, that is what I understand, but this also leaves the potential to scorch the mash while you are distilling it. A lot of people are running a sparge on it to prevent this.

Not an expert by any stretch, but I think you could accomplish the same thing by racking post fermentation similar to how you would off of dry hops and trub.

If you want to sparge, I don't think you are going to get anywhere close to 51% without a ton of rice hulls.

billl said:

Not an expert by any stretch, but I think you could accomplish the same thing by racking post fermentation similar to how you would off of dry hops and trub..

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Now that sounds like a good idea. Maybe I can just run a regular sparge onto a bunch of cooked corn. After I rack off of the pulp, I will put it into a pillow case to wring all the last good stuff from it.

I was under the impression that amateur distilling was illegal? Are we assuming this is a theoretical plan?

Piratwolf said:

I was under the impression that amateur distilling was illegal? Are we assuming this is a theoretical plan?

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Yes, it's illegal in the US. That's why we don't allow distilling threads in this forum.