Working with Corn/Maize

[Almanac]

It's been said a few times by a number of members here that Corn/Maize is a nightmare to work with but maybe not entirely impossible.

I have a goodly amount of flaked Maize left over from my last 'attempt' at making Corn Liquor - messy disaster - but not being one to accept defeat I decided to tackle it another way.

Yesterday I put 1kg of the flaked grain in a loose muslin bag into a big pot with 6lt of hot water at 75oC and stirred. When it started getting really thick I added two teaspoons of powdered Alpha Amylase and 1 teaspoon of Gluco Amylase stirred it in and watched the gloop turn to liquid.

I wrapped a big towel around the pot and left it for a hour at which time I had a clear yellowish liquid on top. I lifted the muslin bag out of the pot, let it drain for a few minutes and left the remaining liquid to settle out.

When it was all settled I siphoned off 3lt of clear yellow liquor into another pot then boiled it until it had reduced to 2lt. I then allowed it to cool before bottling it for future use to add flavour to a wash.

Not exactly simples, I'll grant you, but I may get to add some Corn flavour into my Whisky washes by doing it this way.

AM

[edwatters]

I really want to do some grain washes but I have gotten spoiled on sugar washes ease. I tried a sweet feed mash and like you ended up with a huge mess and a bunch of left over grains to dispose of. I tried everything I could think of to get it to clear with no success. Very frustrating indeed

[chill]

There is more effort and mess to be sure, but the results can be well worth it!

Chuck