Mashing cereal for secondary addition

[KyleWolf]

Hey everyone.

So I know there is plenty of threads about "adding breakfast cereal to secondary" with typical responses of "you should have added it to the mash", so I was thinking there could be a work around.

A buddy and I did a large collaboration stout (11gal 1.120OG) and decided to take extra runnings to get 5 gallons of a smaller stout. After boiling, ended up with 5.5gal of a 1.056 OG stout. Buddy wanted to try to add cinnamon toast crunch to secondary. Like most of you I am a little wary of such things so I had an idea.

crunch up the cereal, mill some 2-row (amount depending on amount of cereal), do a little mini-mash with the cereal and 2-row, do a little mini mash-out and sparge to get like 1/2gal. Boil down to a more manageable volume (1pint to 1qt), cool, and add midway through primary.

You will get some secondary fermentation, but at least it wouldn't be a mushy mess with tons of unfermentables and potential unwanted microbes. Figure the gravity could be measured and any change to the total ABV could be calculated.

For this particular experiment, I am thinking 1lb of 2row milled+ 2 boxes of cinnamon toast crunch. Mash at 152 for 30min using "X Volume" mash water (figuring out a weight/vol ratio of cereal to water and absorption). Mash-out and sparge if possible, boil to <= 1qt, cool, and add to primary...

Looking for thoughts and suggestions on the idea, especially from people who have mashed in breakfast cereals and how they adapted their mash water volumes.

Thanks!

 

[KyleWolf]

So, I just went and did this last night.

Mashed 1# of crushed 2-row with 2.5# of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (pulverized with a rolling pin) in 1 gal of water at 153F in a cooler and let sit for 45min. The cereal absorbs approximately 2cups of liquid per pound. Mashed out and a small sparge later, ended up with 3qts.

Brought to a boil and reduced to 1qt, adding 2 cinnamon sticks for a while. Cooled and added to the beer.


This stuff was liquid french toast. No joke. It was a bit of a hassle and a mess, and probably better just to do it in the original mash. I will come back and do a final review once the beer is kegged, but I will say that initial observations are very promising.

 

[JohnSand]

I think it will work, I have no opinion on the flavor.
All kinds of things are regularly added in the fermenter: candi sugar, fruit, spices, wood chips, liquor, etc.

 

[Metalchef1]

You never posted reviews of the beer..