Moving Mash?

[ShadowXPLR]

Sorry if this is the wrong place or thing to ask, I'm new here

Yesterday I made my first Corn Mash and to keep a long story short, once my cook pot reached 95 I pitched my yeast and gave it a quick stir. I was gonna keep it in the pot to ferment but decided to put it into 5gal buckets so I didn't have a huge pot sitting out.


My first thought was, well all the yeast gonna be in one bucket. So I added an extra .125 tsp to each bucket just to see how it would kick off by today. And well, that seems to be what happened because only 1 bucket is fermenting. Is it too late to move my pot where I want, then put the mash from buckets back into it to finish fermenting?

 

[IslandLizard]

Add more yeast to the bucket that's lagging.
There's no issue adding more yeast or risk adding too much.

How much yeast did you add? 1/8 tsp is not enough for 4 gallons of mash.

 

[ShadowXPLR]

Add more yeast to the bucket that's lagging.
There's no issue adding more yeast or risk adding too much.

How much yeast did you add? 1/8 tsp is not enough for 4 gallons of mash.

When adding should I stir it in? But I made a total of 8.5gal of corn mash and my buddy had some Red Star yeast left over which was about 12g total added to it. I'm supposed to be getting the same kind delivered today just don't know when.

 

[IslandLizard]

2-4 grams of dry (bread) yeast per gallon of mash.

1 (level) tablespoon (= 3 teaspoons) of dry bread yeast, such as Red Star, is around 9 grams.
Best to "proof" the yeast before adding to the mash.

You should stir the mash after adding the yeast, yes. Then aerate the mash. You can use a large whisk for that.

 

[ShadowXPLR]

2-4 grams of dry (bread) yeast per gallon of mash.

1 (level) tablespoon (= 3 teaspoons) of dry bread yeast, such as Red Star, is around 9 grams.
Best to "proof" the yeast before adding to the mash.

You should stir the mash after adding the yeast, yes. Then aerate the mash. You can use a large whisk for that.

Thank you, seems to of did the job by adding more to the bucket that was needed. Also correct me if I'm wrong on this. But since I'm not making a beer/wine and gonna be running through a still, I don't need to worry about aeration/oxidation in the mash or pitching to much yeast?

It seems many people have different views when it comes to mash, which makes it a bit confusing. I've seen some people say it ruins mash, leaves undesired tastes, causes mold etc. I just wanna try to do everything as proper as possible, my uncle was supposed to teach me the ropes but sadly is no longer with us. So I'm just trying to fill in some of the gaps cause I was never around when he made mash, only got to run the still with him.

 

[IslandLizard]

But since I'm not making a beer/wine and gonna be running through a still, I don't need to worry about aeration/oxidation in the mash or pitching to much yeast?

You should oxygenate or aerate your mash when pitching (wet/liquid) yeast. It helps the yeast grow (multiply) before it starts to ferment. With dry yeast aeration/oxygenation is not as important. You can also make a yeast "starter" with dry yeast (it's more like proofing) which will also get it going faster.

You should not overpitch yeast, using too much, as that may create "sulphur" in your mash, which is hard to get rid off later on. Few things are more putrid than sulphur in your distillate (runnings). A copper still, or adding copper to a stainless still, helps breaking down the sulphur. But best to avoid.

There are many discussions about aeration/oxygenation, for example, this one:
https://adiforums.com/topic/2341-question-for-those-who-oxygenate-their-wash/

my uncle was supposed to teach me the ropes but sadly is no longer with us.

So sorry about your uncle, he could have launched you into this hobby, divulging many little tweaks and "secrets" he learned with time.
Luckily there are YouTube vids, other dedicated distilling forums, and resources to help you get down to the nitty gritty quickly.

One thing that's often overlooked is adding nutrients to the mash/wash. They're very important, the yeast needs them to thrive, yielding a better, healthier fermentation with fewer byproducts and unwanted off-flavors.

 

[Bobby_M]

Sorry if this is the wrong place or thing to ask, I'm new here

Yesterday I made my first Corn Mash and to keep a long story short, once my cook pot reached 95 I pitched my yeast and gave it a quick stir. I was gonna keep it in the pot to ferment but decided to put it into 5gal buckets so I didn't have a huge pot sitting out.


My first thought was, well all the yeast gonna be in one bucket. So I added an extra .125 tsp to each bucket just to see how it would kick off by today. And well, that seems to be what happened because only 1 bucket is fermenting. Is it too late to move my pot where I want, then put the mash from buckets back into it to finish fermenting?

Aside from the question you specifically asked, what exactly did you do to make the corn mash?

 

[ShadowXPLR]

Awesome, thank you for the info! But yeah it sucks, he did everything the old fashion way and even made his own stills. He does have a notebook somewhere with all his best recipes but my aunt hasn't found them yet.

 

[ShadowXPLR]

Aside from the question you specifically asked, what exactly did you do to make the corn mash?

I filled a 10gal pot with about 7gal of good well water. I brought it to a boil, then turned off the burner adding 7-8lb of sugar. After stirring I let the pot sit for 10min, then added 8lb of ground yellow corn which I stirred for a good 5min. Throughout the day I stirred it multiple times for about 1min, once my temp read 95 I pitched 10g of yeast stirred it good, and then added to my 5gal buckets.

I plan on changing a lot the next time I make my mash, so any tips are greatly appreciated. I was gonna start with a sugar wash to get my still cleaned up since it's new. But figured using corn mash would be just as good, especially since I pay nothing for the corn and have about 150lb of it right now.

 

[bernardsmith]

Excuse my ignorance but while I can see how the yeast will ferment the sugar, I don't see how the yeast can touch the corn mash... what did you do to enable the carbs from the corn break down into simpler sugars? Simply heating corn or gelatinizing it won't release any ezymes to break the longer sugars down. Did you add malted barley or add amylase?

 

[ShadowXPLR]

Excuse my ignorance but while I can see how the yeast will ferment the sugar, I don't see how the yeast can touch the corn mash... what did you do to enable the carbs from the corn break down into simpler sugars? Simply heating corn or gelatinizing it won't release any ezymes to break the longer sugars down. Did you add malted barley or add amylase?

Hey, you got me there buddy lol. Most the online recipes I saw didn't require any amylase or malted barely, so I figured distillers yeast was different from others and would do all that. Just cause the recipes I did see that had malted barely or amylase on the list didn't use distillers yeast, I don't remember the exact yeast they had listed but it wasn't distillers. Which is why I went with the recipe that had Red Star yeast since I had everything on hand.