Pearl Barley Wash

[Fil]

i dont know that the Amyloglucosidase will do much conversion, my understanding (limited so im happy to be corrected) is that this enzyme will strip off simple sugars off the 'logs' of sugar that would normaly be pulled from starch by the amalayse alpha and beta enzymes found within malted barley.

when i say logs im referring to the analogy that has stuck in my head from Dave Lines Big book of brewing where he compares the enzymes to woodsmen in a forest where the trees are starch.

one woodsman (enzyme) chops the trees into large logs, the second woodsman (enzyme) chops the logs down to kindling.. to expand to include the 3rd Amyloglucosidase enzyme (a woodsmans son perhaps?) this chap would shave the kindling and logs to slithers for easy ignition

the amalyse alpha and beta enzymes present in the pearl barley would have been denatured (killed off) by the boil as they dont survive temps above 80c iirc.

my understanding of this process is both limited and shallow hence clinging onto Dave Lines analogy so if im shooting wide of the mark please dont hesitate in correcting me,

[Anavrin]

Hi Fil

My simple understanding of the stuff I can spell is that it will convert starch to glucose, in particular convert starch and complex glucose that yeast cannot ferment, hence the reason you can use it instead of priming sugar, I beleve by adding it to the fermenter it will work in parallel to the fermentation to create more fermentable glucose from the starch present in the barley.

Hopefully the cooked barley with the addition of amyloglucosidase will add to the fermenables as well as providing nutrient for the yeast, that's the object of this experiment anyway.

So far so good the SG is now 1.030, might only have dropped 8 points in 24 hours but... If the amyloglucosidase is doing its thing it's keeping the SG high as it creates more fermentable sugars (I hope!!!!)

[Fil]

fingers crossed, tho if not 100% successful it might be worthwhile next time when the boiled grain has cooled to about 70C add some virgin grain or a bit of malt if you have it and mix in well to provide the basic enzymes, (i know i cant spell em..) and insulating the pot so it retains an active mash temp for an hour or two (overnight even) to encourage conversion, a mini mash in effect

tho on getting the stuff i sent out i did a very ad-hoc experiment and added a bit to the starch water from a rice rinse from the kitchen and left it overnight, im sure it had a nominally sweeter taste the following morning

[Anavrin]

Yeah fingers crossed, it did cross my mind to mash the barley but I didn't have any alpha anylase and didn't want to add any grain so as too keep it as neutral as possible, next time I might try mashing but I'm looking for a recipe that anyone with only basic home brew knolwedge and equipment could follow.

[Anavrin]

It's now down to 1.010SG, still bubbling slowly and still at 24°c, I added 15ml of my out of date Alfa-Amylase, it says it works best at 25°c for 24-48hrs, I'd hate to think there's any starch still in there that could have become sugar and added to the ABV.

[Anavrin]

Update

This wash is now down to 0.95SG and still going.

I racked it into another FV last night, not so easy cos the little barly bits kept clogging up my siphon, no matter where I placed the bottom of the siphon it kept clogging, had to take the cap off the bottom in the end so quite a few bits got through but it's looking good, I'll be happy with 0.990FG

Ive taken it out of the fermenting fridge now and just have it on a heat mat now, will be interesting to see how it clears when the heats turned off

[Anavrin]

Final post on this, it fermented out to 0.994 and didn't clear, even with turbo klar, I used a vinometer to test the ABV and it only showed 9% so it doesn't look like any ensyme action has taken place

Anyway I stripped it today, collecting down to 30% and got just over 4 litres of strip, I've got a vodkastar 6kg sugar wash almost ready to strip next, then I'll do another vodkastar wash, a lentil wash then I should have 20litres of strip for a good old spirit run, at least if a wash doesn't quite turn out like you want you can still use it

[Almanac]

Can I ask why you stopped the strip at 30%?

I had suspected your expectation of starch conversion might be a little off the mark.

Amyloglucosidase (AG) is solely for breaking the bonds in starch chains left after Alpha and Beta amylase have done their part. Without Alpha and Beta Amylase in the wash, at the right temps, there was nothing for the AG to do.

Things like Lentils can be used for nutrients to feed yeast cells during fermentation if you're making wash for neutral not so sure about the value of something like Pearl Barley but it was worth the experiment because something has been learned.

Onwards and upwards

AM

[Anavrin]

Hi aidanmac

I always stop stripping when I get to 30%, I had a theory, nothing more scientific than that, that when running a strip on a pot still you should stop when the measured ABV of the collection is double the ABV of the original wash, as I'm making neutral, I leaves the majority of the tails in the boiler, however I found that I was collecting more tails than I wanted so I settled on 30% in my mind.

It worked well on my last big spirit run, I'd previously stripped 88 litres from three washes down to 30%
During my spirit run and found I collected pretty much all the alcohol I calculated to be in there without hardly a trace of tails, in the end I remember shutting the still down because I run out of jars to collect hearts in :-)

[Almanac]

Everyone has their own way of doing things based on their judgement and experience. If it works for you that's all that matters

AM

[Benoit]

Just read this thread & now all I can think of is a sugar puff faux whiskey experiment!

Benoit

[Mash]

que?

[Benoit]

I know sugar puffs are wheat not barley but the comment "sugar puff soup" got me thinking, plenty of folks use corn flakes, weetabix, bran flakes to flavour their sugar washes...why not use sugar puffs? Or should I say honey monster puffs or whatever they're called now, my apologies I was thinking out loud...making sense isn't always my strong point!

Benoit

[Mash]

Been done for beer, so whiskey ....

[chill]

I also stop my stripping runs above 30% ABV. My theory is that the small gain in alcohol is not worth the endless bitching from the wife about the smell of tails. :-)