StillSmart

Hi Guys

I had a go at a rice vodka recipe last night, I was making it up as I went along and got a little drunked I'm the process!!!

Anyway I cooked 4kg of rice, 1kg at a time in my rice cooker, heated 45lt of water in my HLT and the plan was to mash the rice with some amylase, it didn't go to plan, I got very drunked and the last thing I remember is thinking the amylase hadn't worked because the mash didn't taste sweet!

So I chucked a 2.5kg bag of crushed Pilsner malt in the MT and give it a big stir, shortly after that I was asleep!


As I lie in bed this morning I wonder how this one will turn out!!!

I'm not as thunk as some drinkle peep I am but the drunker I stand here the longer I get.

Serves you right if it turns out brilliant and you can't remember that one little thing that made it work so well

AM

I think any of us that brew/distill late in the day might be able to own up to a similar episode.
I certainly can.
wishing you well with your ricey malt!
Robert.

It wasn't late in the day, I was in bed before 9pm!

SWMBO says I'm never to cook rice again, it was all over the kitchen and all up the stairs!

Now I just have to decide how to continue, Cant decide if I should pitch yeast on it as it is on the grain or strain it off first, it's still at 45°c in a mash tun.

Ok so here's the method to the madness

To make 38 litres I used

4 kg rice
6 kg sugar
3 kg Pilsner malt
Allinsons yeast

I cooked the rice, 1 kg at a time in my rice cooker, then put all the rice in my MT, topped up with 25 litres of water and added a full pack of ritches amylase, the temp was 65°c after a good stir, I left it for 90 mins.

I then went back to check on it and it didn't appear to have done anything, there was no sign of any sugar, no sweetness to taste so I poured in a 3kg bag of crushed Pilsner malt, give it a good stir and left it overnight.

Today I took the liquid off the mash, 19 litres at 1.060SG

I then added this to 6kg of sugar that I had dissolved in 3 litres of boiling water to make a volume of 25 litres.

To this I added 13 litres of cold water to bring the volume up to 38 litres, the final SG reading was 1.090 @ 32°c
Before I added the yeast I dropped in a pack of Pilsner ensyme, two teaspoons of citric acid and two teaspoons of yeast nutrient (dap)

Anavrin wrote:..... the final SG reading was 1.090 @ 32°c Before I added the yeast I dropped in two teaspoons of citric acid ...

An SG taken at 32C will give a false read but that's not really a problem, as such.

Why did you add Citric Acid? You provide a lot of detail about your process but nothing to indicate that an acid addition was needed, just curious

AM

Hi aidanmac

The gravity is 1.093 after correction, I just couldn't be bothered to work it out at the time, that's why I put the temp, I knew it would be higher so wasn't bothered too much.


The citric acid was belt and braces I guess, I never even measured the PH, same with the Pilsner ensyme, I had it so I just chucked it in!

I try not to over complicate things, I didn't really want to add the malt but after hours cooking rice and mashing I had little choice, needed something to add before the temperature dropped too much for a conversion.

Might have ruined the hole point of using rice, I'll find out in a few weeks I guess!

The reason I asked about the Citric Acid is that if the wash is too acidic the yeast cells will go asleep and the ferment will appear stalled. Two teaspoons of Citric is a lot to use even if your water is very soft and it may have dropped the pH too low for the yeast to work

AM

I suppose I should start checking these things, especially when experimenting with a new wash, I could check it today but I'm not sure how much the ph changes in the first 24hrs.

Just tested the PH after 24hours fermentation, it's low around 3 but I didn't check it before I pitched so I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

At 3 most of the yeast cells are dormant or almost asleep

You could add some Sodium Bicarb and the pH will definitely rise. Dissolve 2 teaspoons in a cup of warm water before adding to the wash and add it slowly. It will fizz up quite a lot but should get the pH back up. Depending or how much it adjusts the balance you may have to do a second addition.

I always found it worked best if I added more dry yeast after the pH has been corrected.

Generally I don't like using Sodium Bicarb but when a wash stalls due to low pH there's not much other choice.

AM

Cheers AM

It's still going but maybe not as fast as I would expect, I'll get some baking powder tomorrow and add some like you suggest.

Baking SODA.

Cheers for that, I thought they were the same thing but a quick google suggests not.

Baking Powder also contains an acidic component, often Cream of Tartar, and other bits you really don't need. Pure is best

AM