How to Make A Corn Mash – 11 Easy Steps That Will Make A Great Corn Whiskey
Making a corn mash is an intimidating thought to most Home brew enthusiast’s but it’s actually quite simple. Not to mention the end product will make one of the best tasting corn whiskey you’ve ever had. The following article will teach you how to make a corn Mash in a simple step by step format that anyone can follow.
Mashing Equipment
First up were going to need some basic equipment. You’ll need a large pot, a funnel, plastic bucket for aeration I like to use a 5 gal pail, cheesecloth, and a brewers thermometer. You can also head over and check out this recommended distillation equipment guide.
Ingredients
Next up let’s make sure you’ve got the ingredients. Your going to need:
- 8.5 lbs. of crushed corn ( If you get this at a feed store make sure it doesn’t have any additives in it)
- 5 gallons spring water (You can use tap water but let it sit for a day or two to remove chlorine
- 2 lbs. of crushed malted barley ( Barley must be malted or this won’t work)
- 1 package of bread yeast from your local grocery store. You can also use Generic Distillers Yeast if you have access to it.
Procedure – 11 Easy Steps To Make Corn Mash
- Step 1 – Heat up 5 gallons of water to 165 F and turn off the heat
- Step 2 – Add 8.5 lbs of crushed corn into the water
- Step 3 – Stir for 2- 3 minutes and after that stir once every 5 minutes until the temperature has drooped to 152 F
- You will notice the corn start to gel this is caused by the starches that are being released from the corn.
- Step 4 – Add 2 lbs of Malted Barely
- Step 5 – Stir for another 1 minute
- Step 6 – Cover with a lid and let sit for 1.5 hrs
While you let the corn mash rest the enzymes in the malted barley are converting the starches in the corn into simple sugars. These sugars will later be converted to alcohol during fermentation. The reason we need to do this is because yeast can’t convert starch into alcohol. It need’s to be in sugar form to do this. If your interested in learning how starch is turned to sugar head on over to my post How Enzymes Turn Starch To Sugar.
- Step 7 – Don’t grab that beer yet because your not quite done. While your waiting you should take this time to get a “Yeast Starter” going . The Starter will speed along the fermentation process and help give you quality corn whiskey that will taste great. I’ve already discussed how to make a Yeast starter in my earlier post “4 Steps to making an Easy Yeast Starter” so I won’t go over that again.
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Step 8 – Once the Corn Mash has cooled enough to handle strain the Mash through a cheesecloth to remove the solids
- Step 9 -Aerate mixture by pouring the Mash back and forth between two buckets several times you can also pour into a carboy and shake vigorously for a minute or two. At this point measure the Specific Gravity of the Mash with a hydrometer. The specific gravity reading is used to determine determine how much alcohol will be in the wash once fermentation is complete
- Step 10 – Check the temperature to make sure it is between 75 – 85 F. Once it is between this range add your Yeast Starter and Corn Mash to your primary fermenter pail or carboy.
- Step 11 – Install Airlock and let the yeast do it’s work! After several hours you should begin to see bubbles coming through the air lock. Fermentation will take 1- 2 weeks! When it stops bubbling its ready to distill.
Distillation
If you’d interested in learning how to turn your Corn Wash into Corn Whiskey Moonshine check out this How to Distill – 101 article and video.