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Questions on Saccharification and Rapid Clarification.
I don’t brew, so forgive me if I say something that seems obvious. But reading the parent site gets me curious and I figured why not post this for the benefit of beggining brewers, or whoever might care. I was reading about Uncle Jesse’s Sour Mash Method and was wondering if anyone has ever used the same sort of technique to make beer. In two respects, the first being the use of cracked corn in its original state without going through all the cooking and sachrification, and the second being to take a portion of the original brew and put it in the next batch. I was mostly intrigued by the first question, whether sachrification is necessary for beer making if you add sugar for alcohol. I have another brew related question which will help me in my distillation. I have been getting burnt yeast in the boiler, and am wondering if there is a faster way to clear than racking. i have tried coffee filters, and they just dont work. Is there any other way to clear it without the interminable waiting. I would really prefer a DIY sort of way rather than purchasing some fancy filter.Thanks All Who Reply!
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8 Replies
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Saccharification is supposed to occur slowly at room temperature if the malt and starchy adjuncts are fermented, especially using a continuous batch method. My speculation is this would lead to mediocre beer. For one thing, boiling denatures the saccharification enzymes, so there are questions of how the hops would be extracted and how haze-forming proteins would be precipitated. Also, there is the issue of whether prolonged contact with alcohol in the ferment would extract raunchy-tasting compounds from the grain, or at least bitter tannins. I have deliberately added starchy materials to the boiler when brewing lambic-style beers, but that is a bit of a special case. Also, sake employs a whole-cereal ferment, but involving white rice rather than barley, maize, etc.The trick with rapid filtering is to go for maximum surface area, rather than forcing all the liquid to drop through some narrow point as occurs with coffee makers. I have a device which essentially clamps and supports a round piece of lab filter paper between two open-ended plastic columns. Alternatively, a cylindrical acquarium filter does something similar. Such systems are fast, but still won’t filter out yeast. Pro brewers use a cylinder containing diacotemous earth, aka bentonite, because it not only filters mechanically but also has an electrical charge which precipitates yeast and proteins. You could make something similar up at home by cutting the base off a glass or plastic bottle. Turn it upside down, wedge some small stones in the neck, then follow that with layers of sand, bentonite or synthetic acquarium filter wool. Hope people get the idea without me drawing a picture? The idea is to have the brew dropping through all this stuff by gravity, and then out the neck. It should be able to run as fast as you can syphon it but, if not, you need to figure out a way of stopping the bottle overflowing. For a more sophisticated touch, replace the bottle with a pipe plus a couple of screw-on end-caps. It occurs to me at this point that spirit filtering systems might also provide some inspiration.
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Some more thoughts.It occurs to me that I did once ferment a beer on the grain (barley malt), after running into a stuck sparge. The effect was sulphide city, aka rotten-egg gas. Combine this with the principle that fermenting on the boiler trub increases the fusel oil content, and you do have to wonder about some of the bourbon practices vis a vis scotch.For a mega brew filter, I have seen acquarium systems which basically consist of a brew barrel with a tap in the base, a false bottom of pebbles, and a precisely-cut disc of foam which sits on top. You could just fill the thing up and then let it drip out.
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Diatomaceous earth is the silica skeletons of diatoms, a marine creature. Because it is silica and relatively chemically inert and the skeletons lock together leaving a network of fine holes it makes a good filter medium.Bentonite is a clay which swells enormously with the addition of water so is good for sealing things like leaky dams – not good for getting stuff to flow through. Because of its large surface area and charged surface it is good for adsorbing nastys and is used in cattle feed to combat some toxins. Haven’t heard of it being used to adsorb stuff from Hooch – perhaps someone should investigate.
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I tried putting sand on top of a coffee filter in a bowl with a hole cut in the bottom to filter a portion of wash, it just made it nastier. Has anyone ever tried a Brita water filter or anything like that? It’s only 9.99 so I figure it’s worth a try.
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From memory, a Brita works on the principle of carbon + ion exchange. So, it might have some value for polishing spirit, but almost certainly won’t take out yeast, and could be clogged by any suspension.I am surprised sand made things worse. I forgot to mention that with any filter based upon earthy ingredients, it is an idea to run something mildly acidic through it first, then H2O till it runs clear. Also, maybe try a few more holes in the bowl, plus lining it with a piece of cloth to hold any earthy filter material.[/b]
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i dont know whats worse burnt yeast or burnt corn on the bottom of the kettle? which aint hard to do! you might try puting it in a colder place or iin the fridge if it will fit the majority of them should fall out.when is never enough?
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OK, I got hold of some diatomaceous earth from an acquarium supplier, and it is just the thing for taking out yeast. From some playing around, I would rank filtration media in descending order of coarseness as sand, synthetic fibre, filter paper, and diatomaceous earth. The first three will work in an inverted bottle or large funnel, provided that there is enough of a false bottom to supply a reasonable surface area. The earth, however, is so dense when wet that the only way to get a reasonable through-put is to use a flat-bottomed colander or perforated basin. Obviously, a bit of splashing occurs this way and an anti-oxidation strategy might be required if using this method before bottling wine.One question that arises, however, is whether yeast can truely “burn” in a still boiler. I would be inclined to think that most of the time it is starch, protein, etc, that is actually doing the sticking, and to take that sort of stuff out the coarser media like sand and synthetic fibre would possibly be more convenient. I realise that yeast cells can burst and give off-flavours, but it’s not as if anyone is trying to distill an entire yeast cake (I hope). Another point that occurs is that the earth would probably clog rapidly if it is attempted to pass any sort of viscous solution through it, so a coarser pre-filter might be required in some cases.
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well after a bit of expiramentation, this is what i ended up with, it removes almost all of the yeast in a single past and goes pretty quickly.-upside down 64oz Welches Grape juice bottle (wider neck than a soda bottle) with the bottom cut off.-Drilled 8 or so 1/4 in holes in the cap. and lined the inside with a single layer of paper towel.-put rocks on the inside of the cap-wrapped about 1 cup of sand (boiled to sanitize) in 3 layers of paper towels, as tightly as possible placing it in such a way that the loose ends would not float around in the wash being filtered.-run vinegar through-run water through till it comes out clear-Test on washThe tested wash went from impossible to see through to being able to see straight through, but still a little hazyI wrote that in a hurry, sorry if it is incomprehensible.~The Midnight Rider
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