Sounds pretty good to me. I actually leave my mash tun overnight now and dump the mash into my fermenter the next morning. Do you have any backset? If not, you might want to acidify your strike water a bit with citric acid or lemon juice. With backset (25% of my water) I usually shoot for a ph of 4 or so. Anything 5.8 or lower is fine. The acidity gives you that traditional "sour" flavor component. I find I get the best flavor from a 4th or 5th generation backset with my bourbon recipe. Are you using 6-row or 2-row barley? It shouldn't matter much, but the 6-row has less sugars and more amylase enzymes. Having 25% of your grain bill as malted barley should be just fine though, regardless.

The real bugger is straining the liquid off the grains after fermenting (unless you have indirect heat and can distill on the grains). I use a BIAB type brewing bag and scoop 1 gallon at a time into the bag and squeeze the crap out of it into a secondary fermenter (sanitized pillow case works fine too). When I'm done, I let it cold crash (or slowly settle) and rack into my boiler. Some people skip this step. I think letting it clear a bit makes a better flavored spirit with my gear... but you do lose some volume.

You'll definitely want to do this. I keep about a half a pound of crushed 6-row in a bowl next to me when I'm mashing corn (I buy my 6-Row by the 50 lb bag). I usually do two 10-gallon cooler mash tuns at the same time (I know, I need to upgrade) and the half pound is more than plenty for both. Two or three handfuls make a big difference. I add as I'm heating up the corn, and again later sometimes as it's cooling to my malt temp if it seems thick.

Your malted barley (if it's 2-row) should be around 140*L, so that can reliably convert 4.6 lbs of grain (30*/lb). The Rye malt is 105*L (breiss is, anyway), so that's good to convert another 17.5 lbs. You're surely all set for amylase enzymes.

Well I mashed in on my first all grain wash. Overall I think it was a success lol. Here is my process, if anybody has any suggestions or pointers for the next run, please post.
I added 8 gallons of water to my stock pot and heated to 100*F. Added 14 lbs of cracked corn, stirring occasionally. Brought temperature up to 180*F (I did add about 3/4 of a pound of malted barley to the wash between 140-160*F to help reduce the thickness of the wash. It did help a lot). I kept the temperature at 180*F for 90 min. A crap load of stirring to prevent scorching. I killed the heat and left the wash to cool to 150*F. This was going way slow so I added two more gallons of water to help cool the wash faster. When the temp hit 153*F, I turned the heat on super low and added 5 lbs of malted rye and 1 lbs of malted barley. I kept the temp at 148-153*F for three hours. The wash looked a little bit think and cloudy still so I killed the heat, stirred real well and added the other 3/4 lbs of malted barley I had on hand. I left the lid off and let the wash cool to 134*F. Tested for starch conversion using iodine and it passed. I then racked the mash into my primary fermentor to let cool to below 90*F before I pitch my yeast. I couldn't stand it so I took a hydrometer reading at 100*F and was super surprised to see a 1.065 (after temperature correction). That means I got great conversion and hit the proper mash temps. Overall process took about 10 hours. I think it was a success. But the real test will be what it tastes like after distillation. I decided to wait till morning to pitch yeast and I was thinking about adding two more gallons of water to thin it out a bit and maybe trap some more grain flavor.

I pitched half a packet of Still Spirits Distiller's whiskey Yeast directly into the wash and started the other half of the packet in a half a cup of wash and a tablespoon of sugar. I'm going to let the started yeast double in size and then pitch. But I am not sure that I like the yeast. Its been over an hour and no movement, bubbles, or anything. I ll keep watching it and if nothing after several hours I'll switch to bakers yeast.

"
countryboy:

For a first AG mash, it sounds like you had a great success! Congratulations! In reading this thread I can see that you did a great job with your research ... and it certainly paid off. Good show!


Randy:

What kind of absorption do"

The spec sheet calls for rehydration ... in the past I've both sprinkled it on top and rehydrated ... didn't notice any difference. But that was for session ales, so the gravity was well below 1.065.

Edit: whoops ... belay that ... I was thinking S-05 ... sorry.

Thanks for the advice and waiting. You guys were right. Yes, both of them started working. They both just had a really slow take off. I added the started to the rest of the wash and its working now and looking good. There is a good head crust developing so I am going to lock her down and let it work its magic. It took about 3 hours to notice good activity, and around 4 to see a head crust.

I use this calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/
... but I assumed a total volume of 10 gallons, and I'm sure you were probably under that after the corn boil.

JB - I lose about 20% of my strike water volume by the time I squeeze off the grains, clear, and rack. I squeeze off the grains at 1 week into a secondary and settle for an additional week before I cold crash (24 to 48 hours) and rack. I know this isn't necessary, but the beer brewer in me demands it. I like to run as clear a wash as possible.

Well, I use 20.5 lbs of grain (12# corn, 4# 6-row, 3# wheat malt, 1.5# maris otter) per 10-gallon mash tun + ~8 gallons water, and yield 6 gallons of clear wash to the boiler per tun (I do 2 at a time). So I suppose it's about .39 quarts per pound. This is based off of my recipe using flaked maize. I don't use flaked any more since it's super expensive, but I'm not certain of volume with the cracked corn I use because I boil the corn for 90 minutes in 4 gallons of water, cool it, and add it to the tun. Then I top to 8.5 gallons and mash in the malts. I assume it's probably pretty close. For the record, I really squeeze the hell out of my grains.

I don't soak, but I grind the corn twice through my barley crusher and add it to the water before I start to heat it up. From here on out I'll be steam cooking the corn because I befriended a local fellow distiller who made an awesome steam cooker and he told me I can use it any time I want.

You can run it right away, that's what many people do. I don't, but people who have experimented with cloudy/clear corn washes report little differences other than a higher charge volume without the clearing. If you have a refrigerator that your fermenter will fit in, that is the best way to clear it. Refrigerate for 24/48 hours and it clears right up. I'm paranoid about scorching because I have an internal heating element, but I've never tried to run a completely cloudy wash. Maybe I'm just doing a rain dance with the clearing. Just my $0.02.