How to make a corn mash for distilling 

Been making single malt for awhile, what a great quick refresher ! I had previous recipes, but I JUST MISS GEORGE! I hope you are doing GREAT and enjoying life. Best Wishes and many thanks to an awesome mentor. Thanks again George👍👍

This guy is a national treasure.

I read through several comments about corn meal and starch conversion. Here was the original question: " I was wondering if you use corn meal if you would have to use the barley to help convert the starches in the corn into fermentable sugars or can you leave the barley out and just steep the corn meal and that will convert the starches in the corn into fermentable sugars". Several replies led me to another test. Here are the results: 1LB corn meal 1 gallon water Mixed and took original readings (gravity was 1.001 and the iodine test for starch was positive) Brought it to a boil and steeped it for 1 hour. Cooled the mix and took the reading again: results: Gravity was 1.001 and the iodine test for starch was positive. Second test with the remainder of the mixture: Heated to 155 and added 1/2 teaspoon of Amylase Enzyme. Steeped for 30 minutes Test results: Gravity was 1.035 and the iodine test for starch was negative. The mixture was also sweet, watery liquid and sticky on my fingers as opposed to its original texture which was thick. My reinforce the science of converting starch to sugar. Amylase Enzyme must be present. Corn meal will not convert itself not can it. If using straight corn meal works for you please continue to do this. If you add any sugar to your corn meal and water mixture to ferment it will ferment but it is the sugar you added that ferments and not the corn meal. all I can say is the science does not support corn meal converting itself George

Thank you George , I enjoy watching your videos , I have learned a lot and I’m still learning

George, I love your videos. I finally found someone who knows what they are talking about! So many idiots make videos with false and dangerous information and claim it to be the gospel truth! Distilling and brewing is a science and you explain it so that we don't need a degree in chemistry to understand! THANK YOU!!!! I need to come see you and pick up a beginners 🍺 beer kit.

Your the man,ty for sharing your wealth of knowledge to the rest of us

you are perfect sir you have taught me a lot of things about mash and distillation thanks a lot

George you are the teacher and i am the student and i love coming to your class

where were you at 15 yrs. ago when I was wanting to learn? so I finally got self taught by mistakes and failures. you got some good video's good to see.

I wish I could thumbs up your videos more than once George. Thanks.

Just wanted to tell you thank you so much for your helpful videos. You do a great job explaining everything needed to know for all the processes. Love the great personality, I could watch your videos all day! Keep them coming!!!!

awesome videos. never too much info

I sure miss George. he made good and informed videos​.

George , could you do an episode on the different yeasts and which are best for gaining the highest ABV and what the limitations are ....... That would help me a bunch. Ty Sir ......... Happy Brewing !

Man, great channel and videos. No comparison the best on youtube. Incredibly great explanations for a sometimes vague process. Thanks alot!

Good stuff as always George. Thank you.👍

Awesome video. Absolutely informative in an easy to understand platform.

I live in Australia a bottle of rum costs me almost $50 you are helping me negate the crazy tax rates

Glad to see the videos back up

So, I got a 24 quart stock pot with a steaming basket inside. I use that, along with a 200 micron polyester bag and it works great ! The basket keeps the bag away from the bottom of the pot. When I'm done steeping, the bag lifts right out with the basket. SO much easier than trying to separate the liquid from the solids by other forms of straining.

I use stone ground Indian Head corn meal and cane sugar wash. After distillation add charred oak chips. Excellent explanation and review

Thanks for sharing. Very educational

Learning a lot from your videos tho your awesome

George I made this exactly the way you did except I added 1 Qt of Honey. It turned out amazing.

Thanks for the video , George !

Good post,and a good job, very in formative .thumbs up and I subscribed, cheers !

I saw one of your videos on oak aging in barrels which is what I want to do. I've been using chips with success but, want to know more about the barrels. Very informative. Now I watched this out of curiosity and, subscribed. I do ciders and, beers. I don't distill. Interesting video converting starch to fermentable sugar test with iodine. Great channel! I can learn much from your videos

First time distilling I used flake corn, 6 row barley , sugar yeast and water , I never cooked it I let it ferment for 7 days then filtered it and distilled it I got a shine that was 165 proof , I'm gonna try it your way cooking the corn and grains it makes more sense

You remind me of my favorite teacher in high school (Mr Sims - electronics, who dropped a tv tube from a bench) - (I'd actually attend your classes) - yup.. I'd attend your classes and ask id I could babysit your kids. :)

This is an excellent video thank you

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!! ❤️ But stop welcoming us back we didn’t go anywhere!! 🤣🤣

Cooked up 75 to 80 eara of corn for freezing and remembered what you said about. Us trying something and letting you know. Added 7 lbs to the 4 plus gallons of sticky water added just enough cool water to get to 5 gallons let cool. Checked the SG ,1.075. Just finished fermenting down to .9999. Happy distilling

thank you for this, explaining the APV helped me out a lot very few take the time great video

something i wanna mention to all you new comers not to rain on your parade gorge you know way more then i do ut try your own thing a while get it to where tou like it then try new techies if you dont get how it works you dont need to just do it after a while go back to learning the same thi g about those techniques and it will make more sense try a knak at it again till you like what you findall i use is corn and barley and i just recently started understanding starch conversion.. thanks again for your shelf of knowledge gorge i appreciate your shareing of it

Good presentation. I'll try it. Thanks.

Great channel, my father and I own Lazy RW Distillery, here in Nebraska, your information is spot on! Really enjoy your posts!

you legend, thanks a lot mate!

Thanx. Very helpfull!!!!

This is a gold mine! Noticed you haven't posted in a while. Thank you Sir, for everything you've done for so many of us. Hope you're doing well.

Thanks George!

Love your videos

thank you for the great video.

by all means george is the most amazing and helpful man on this subject , actually he has helped myself out very much, if you need to know anything about distilling he,s the man,,, thanks george,, ur the man

"I recommend if you got nothing else to do, just go ahead and read."

I love you George!

Exactly, there's nothing that says you can't do preparation and show how it is done. Many people like to know just out of curiosity. Awesome video by the way, very informative. I am curious if you are going to show how that fast ferment works in this mashing process. Won't the grains clog up the lower ball where you remove the yeast?? Would be great to see a video on that and how you would remove the wash after fermentation is complete....... Just an idea. Thanks for these great videos they have been very informative.

love the videos, im just starting into distilling, but I have been doing home brewed beer for 5 years, malt and into all grain... My father was a old moonshiner in Va. so :) still tring to track down his recipe, his was origanally done with horse feed,lol

Thanks "Thurston Howell III"!

Love your video's. Probably the most articulate and well produced instructional videos on the net. Well done Sir. Being South African, the term "flaked corn" is foreign to me. We would commercially be able to buy (a) milled corn (for grits etc.) but I think this has already been bleached? (b) whole yellow corn "popcorn" grade which is probably dried sweetcorn or (c) we could probably buy large grain normal corn that has also been dried. So which is more appropriate in if whole corn form and then how could I flake it?

The best book you can find on internet The Complete Distiller by Nixon & McCaw...

Thanks! Great video!!

Omg your a legend I swear

I love your style and how you go alt your videos the one thing that gets me lost and of track is how long it gets too explain. I wish you made some new videos that you summerise Everything for us that want go watch and go at the same time.

The tomato paste is amazing with ec1118. I was wondering if people removed the grain instead of fermenting on it lose out on a little corn flavor

Thats not coffee youre drinking... hahaha. Keep up the great informative videos!

I was trying to make things easier for me to make the mesh without killing to much time. I was wanting to know pre-mix my yeast into spice containers so they can be ready to make the next batch whenever the time comes? I enjoy your great information. Keep up the great work!

Maybe you could go into explaining what kinds of corn to use .and where to get it. Is flaked corn the same as feed corn? Can you use frozen corn or canned corn?Where to buy barley? Malted barley . I’m loving your videos. Just confused on where to start

Hey great stuff, For real tho i wish you all the luck in the world.

George, thank you SO MUCH for sharing your expertise !! I was wondering when to add sugar, if I decide to do so. Also, when to add amylase enzyme, if I choose to do so ?? Thanks again sir !

Taking a quick break... The iodine test was slick and I got the correct result 😉 1 more gallon to rinse the grains and check specific gravity... Then it will be time for yeast... I hope, lol. Thanks George !!

Hi George from Australia. Just wondering if you could put things in metric as well. Love your videos been brewing all grain beer for more than 10 years and in a brew club which I highly recommend for people to do always learning. I am sure you are helping a lot of people out there you have been kicking my memory back into gear and I thank you. Keep up the great work. Cheers from John

A LOT of homebrewers use iodophor, as a sanitizing agent Iodophor can also be used in the iodine starch test. And, you've already got it. Yes, I did, for quite a few years, professionally, and in homebrewing. steve

Corn meal is expensive. Cracked corn is cheap ($8/50 lbs). Cracked corn will not stick a lautering operation. I'd like to see you do a video on using cracked corn as the principle augmentative grain. I found it best to mill it to a smaller particle size then add it to boiling water and when cooled to 190F add high temperature alpha amylase to prevent thickening. Rye can be added then. At 165F it is added to a mash tun and malt is added along with a small amount of beta amylase. After an hour this is lautered, boiled 30 minutes with sugar added, and cooled then yeast is pitched. The batch size was 10 gallons. 70% was corn, the least expensive grain. American whiskey became corn based due to cost initially cost drive that turned into preference. I tried corn meal and rejected it after a stuck sparge and high costs.

I was thinking that if you bought a stainless steel strainer that fit inside your pot , it would hold the grain bag off the bottom just enough that you wouldn’t need to worry about the bag burning/ melting on the bottom of the pot.

Hi George, love the videos. We have a small craft distillery located on the most southern island below Australia and over the last 12 months have started producing our single malt whiskeys that are currently ageing away in barrels. Recently we decided to attempt a American style "bourbon" whisky without much success. We are getting great conversion during fermentation and our last batch even produced the "cap" that you see on some other distillery videos but we are getting stuck on draining the wort away from the grains. we have tried both prier to and post ferment, we have used enzymes as well as made multiple temp adjustments but we are unable to drain using our false bottom mash tun. we are looking at a mash of aprox 300l (about 90 gallons in your language lol) Hope you have come across similar issues and have some tips. Cheers from Australia.

Great video, especially the iodine part, like it. Can you tell what kind of yeast do you use, is it have to be beer yeast of it can be wine yeast or baking yeast? How much is it matter? Everything else is perfectly clean.

George Please do a all wheat mash for vodka. I guess some of the malted barley will have to be added to interact with the wheat. Thank you.

Can I use 4 lbs of corn meal instead of flaked corn? Can I use amylase instead of barley? Will that cooktop support a 5 gallon still? Great videos, knowledgeable and entertaining!

George, love your videos! Question for you, would it be beneficial to do a protein rest (125 degs) to help with the conversion? I'm using a Grainfather so step mashes aren't a n issue. Also in your subtitle you mention a ratio of 3 to 1 corn to barley, but in the video you use 4 lbs corn to 2 lbs barley. Keep doing what you do George, helps newbies like me a bunch.Tom

Can you use cracked corn?

I miss your videos. Hope you are doing well.

0:30 thats the same beer kit I ordered online, shame it didnt turn out that well lol.

1pound chopped raisins also work to substitute nutrients

Great videos. You didn't mention whether or not the barley was malted. I'm assuming it was malted?

thanks for the tip will try the tomato paste... thanks

FYI, redistillation will not get rid of scorched corn flavor. at that point you might as well just turn it into ant killer or Firestarter.

So say you were making a larger amount of mash would all the ingredients multiply or do some things stay the same? Is there a percentage that should be followed or how does that work

Would I be able to use cracked cattle corn? It’s half ground half normal corn

Question, If I wanted to start distilling of shine making. And would like to upload a video also. What are the legal points and how can I get around it?

Thank you

Hey George, why not just use amylase and glucoamylase to convert more starch to sugar and forego all that dextrose?

So I bought 6 row malted barley but it’s not crushed. I guess I can just crush it myself? Also would brown sugar change the tase? After I found this channel I have so many questions!!! Thank you so much!

Thanks from a rookie for this helpful video . Do you have a 5 gallon all grain mash bill using no sugar?

i know this is probably a stupid question before i say it but if 6 row barley converts starch to sugar why not just add corn starch to it , or is corn starch more expensive than sugar ?

I'm new to this hobby I have a question how much sugar is too much I'm trying to up my yield what is a good starting gravity that will give me good yield but not create it to not be smooth and firey

Hey, great videos! I am just starting to look into making my own whiskey (I typically drink rye or irish). Just wondering what type of wash i should use or any steps/tips you could recomend as i research

Thank you for all the great information George. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. I had a quick question about using tomato paste for the yeast nutrient. is it really worth adding it? will it help that much & do you think it will change the flavor of the final product? or change it a little but either way it should be added to have a better quality? I can get tomato paste a lot easier than I can Yeast Nutrient. thank you, hope you are having a great weekend.

Thank you for the great video series. I have been learning a lot. When you weigh out your corn for the mash, are you using the gelatinized weight or the dry weight?

You are using 6 row, we live in a remote location in northern alberta, I can get 2 row. If we were to use 2 row & corn meal would it work ok. Your videos are great. We just got a 10 gal stil & ran the first batch of sugar mash, it is a learning process. Thanks

George can you answer me a qhestion?? why does it say on my turbo yeast NOT TO USE A AIRLOCK BUBBLER ?? this kinda confused me,, is it because it holds gases in or they think it will blow off the air lock? thanks Ray Fuselier

Soooo, there are at least 3 ways to make this same recipe. 1. just the corn plus the amylase cooked at 152-158 for an hour. 2. the corn, minus the amylase, plus the distiller's malt. 3. either of the above plus sugar to increase the yield. If ones desires quality over quantity, which do you recommend?

I am confused about amylase. Can I make a mash without it? Also, do you ship to Perú? Thanks, I love your videos!

Thanks!!

Hey George, been watching for quite a while and I’ve seen you add sugar to a lot of the grain builds for higher abv. What about adding grape juice or some other high sugar fruit. I feel like there’s so many comparisons between Brandy and whiskey that they may go well together. Especially after aging on oak. What say you?

Can one make a 100% Corn mash without using enzymes?

Hey George could you make a video on making a wine mash using fresh berries?

Can you use stsrsan which is 95 % iodine? Just wondering Thanks for your vids learned a lot.

hey George your vids are great and very helpful.. I was gona ask you if you think a 2nd distill will help the flavor of a scorchedmash or should I just dump it. 5lbs wheat flour 2lbs white corn meal and it just burned before I new it.. dang it. got to get one of those bags! thanks again..

i havent yet bought a still but i want to make a mash and i may have to refrigerate it four 4 to 7 days waiting for daughter to come on fourth of july can i do this?

Hi mate when you talk about gallons are you taking American measures or European ones Irish 4.5 litres in a gallon thanks Ps very informative though