Unmalted mash? is it possible

[mister_photon]

I have a blend of white rice, oats, barley and corn that are all unmalted. I plan on adding about 2 lbs of cane sugar to the boil after the grains have been sparged for about 90 minutes. I have heard that you can release the sugars in a sparge if you soak them long enough (160; water for 90 minutes) if you are using unmalted ingredients. Is this true? I went to the hopsville beer calculator and input the components.

3 lbs corn - unmalted
3 lbs oats - unmalted
3 lbs unmalted barley
2 lbs rice
2 lbs cane sugar

8 % alc yield pending yeast

Is this science fiction or fact?

Thank you, Nick, User - Mister Photon - [email protected]

 

[Nanobru]

I seriously doubt it. The starchy endosperm of the grain does not contain sugar. It has enzymes that will convert the starch into sugar once the seed experiences the necessary conditions to sprout into a new plant. This process takes days (48-72 hrs) not 90 minutes. If you were to uses unmalted grain and corn sugar, you would end up with alcohol equally the potential of the corn sugar. Using unmalted grains is possible in low proportions (under 10%), because there is sufficient enzymes in the other 90% of the grain bill to convert it. The only way I can see it your grain bill working, would be to add Alpha Amylase to the mash, the naturally occurring enzyme in malted barley.

 

[passedpawn]

Yep, add amylase enzymes to mash. I'd do some small-scale experiments first. Use iodine to determine if you are getting conversion. I think you can also just use a refractometer to measure soluble sugars in the mash (starch is insoluble so it won't change the refract reading - I think )

 

[BigEd]

I have a blend of white rice, oats, barley and corn that are all unmalted. I plan on adding about 2 lbs of cane sugar to the boil after the grains have been sparged for about 90 minutes. I have heard that you can release the sugars in a sparge if you soak them long enough (160; water for 90 minutes) if you are using unmalted ingredients. Is this true?

No it isn't. Whoever told you that has never read a brewing book. Without enzymes the starch does not change to sugar. As was posted above, you need to add enzymes with either an addition of malted grain or enzyme powder.

 

[geezerpk]

Out of curiosity, about how much enzyme powder might it take to convert the OPs unmalted grain bill?

 

[mloster]

You could do a cereal mash of all your grains, cool to 122º, add Promalt, do a beta-glucanase rest, raise the temp, do a protein rest, raise the temp, add amylase or diatase, do a normal mash temp rest, mash out, and brew as normal. At boiling, you would add the cane sugar. If performed properly, you'd probably be able to get about 75% efficiency. It's basically about converting the bound up starch into usable sugars, which isn't all that hard with the proper enzymes. It's just time consuming. If you're going to go through all of that pain, you might as well just buy some malted barley and call it a day. If you want to experiment though, it's entirely possible.