I've used masa harina once before (in place of flaked corn) in an English bitter, thinking the nixtamalization process would have gelled all the starch. I got terrible efficiency on that batch; the masa contributed a little sugar, but very little.
Last night I tried again, doing a proper cereal mash. I used one pound of dried masa, 4 ounces of pale 2-row malt that I whizzed in a coffee grinder (I hadn't ground the grist for the beer yet) and a gallon of warm water. And a crushed vitamin C tablet to dechlorinate the water (that went in first.)
I stirred the masa and malt in with a whisk to break up the dough balls, but it didn't really try to form balls. Heated slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. I took a pH measurement because I was concerned about residual lime that was used to treat the corn, and was surprised that the pH was 6.85. I was confused by this at first because my water is pretty alkaline to start with, then I remembered the 500 mg vitamin C tablet (ascorbic acid)
The cereal never did really thicken much, the malt pretty much dissolved it all. I simmered it for 10 minutes, then covered it and turned off the fire until I was ready to add it to the mash. I tasted it, and it was a little bit sweet, although that might be my imagination.
I got crazy-high efficiency with this beer; over 81% and I'm usually doing good to hit 75%. I might need to water it down a little at bottling time because I was shooting high to begin with. (a cream ale, but too strong and too hoppy for the style so I'm calling it a blonde ale)
So, masa harina substitutes just fine for corn grits and is easy to mash, but it still does require a cereal mash. The lime doesn't seem to hurt anything, they must wash it all out. The closest thing to trouble I had was a slow (but not stuck) drain and sparge. The flour particles clogged the BIAB fabric, but they didn't stick to it. I just rolled the bag around and it would drain from a different spot. Then roll it back and it would drain from the bottom again.
Last night I tried again, doing a proper cereal mash. I used one pound of dried masa, 4 ounces of pale 2-row malt that I whizzed in a coffee grinder (I hadn't ground the grist for the beer yet) and a gallon of warm water. And a crushed vitamin C tablet to dechlorinate the water (that went in first.)
I stirred the masa and malt in with a whisk to break up the dough balls, but it didn't really try to form balls. Heated slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. I took a pH measurement because I was concerned about residual lime that was used to treat the corn, and was surprised that the pH was 6.85. I was confused by this at first because my water is pretty alkaline to start with, then I remembered the 500 mg vitamin C tablet (ascorbic acid)
The cereal never did really thicken much, the malt pretty much dissolved it all. I simmered it for 10 minutes, then covered it and turned off the fire until I was ready to add it to the mash. I tasted it, and it was a little bit sweet, although that might be my imagination.
I got crazy-high efficiency with this beer; over 81% and I'm usually doing good to hit 75%. I might need to water it down a little at bottling time because I was shooting high to begin with. (a cream ale, but too strong and too hoppy for the style so I'm calling it a blonde ale)
So, masa harina substitutes just fine for corn grits and is easy to mash, but it still does require a cereal mash. The lime doesn't seem to hurt anything, they must wash it all out. The closest thing to trouble I had was a slow (but not stuck) drain and sparge. The flour particles clogged the BIAB fabric, but they didn't stick to it. I just rolled the bag around and it would drain from a different spot. Then roll it back and it would drain from the bottom again.
