amalyse is cheap & goes a long ways I’ve used it with corn meal , canned corn & masa as well as rice you can get it from www.homebrewsupply.com as well as a variety of yeasts
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Have any experience using iodine to check the starch after the amylase is added?
no I haven’t heard of trying that I see amazon carries amylase & yeast pretty reasonable
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You add a couple drops of iodine to the pre-ferment mash to make sure the starches have converted into fermentable sugars. Add iodine to high starch liquid and it turns black, but add it to a high sugar liquid and it doesn’t change color at all.
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I always give it a taste & stick 2 fingers in it if it don’t taste sweet & as your fingers dry they don’t try to stick together she is ready
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That’s what I understand. Thanks for the conformation. Another question. At what PH should the corn mash be at before fermenting?
Doing a banana run ATM cooked it all up last night and it’s setting in the flower room bubbling away. Hoping the extra CO2 helps the plants. Will add pics later…
Good source of natural potassium. Wonder what would be left after the process?
99
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Would think of the only way to benefit from the P is to drink the mash. Do know that the banana smell and tastes transfer to the distillate.
I quit drinking 15 years ago. Kept breaking out in handcuffs. Also having a little indian in me. I turn into a wild and crazy guy…woohoo!!!
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Terrible affliction.
All those really nice people in blue uniforms, just trying to help you.
Gag!
99%
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Still would like to know what the proper PH level should be if any one knows…
Here’s a pic of one of the airlocks bubbling along. Think we’re at 3 days bubbling.
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some say around about 4.0-4.5 before fermentation
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Thank you Mr. Sparkle. Do you use citric acid to lower the PH?
Also is it safe or a cheaper way of feed the yeast crushed multi vitamins the extra nutrients it needs. Using as yeast nutrients?
puffpuffpass
I use straight citric acid, but lemon juice also works.
As for yeast nutrients, some do use multivitamins but i believe that’s more of a “hey if its good for me its good for my brew” type situation than actual “solid” science behind it, there are better or cheaper options out there.
Kinda two thoughts on it, one is you can over pitch your yeast or add dead yeast for your active yeast to feed on as it will provide all the nutrients the yeast need to survive on. Or the second is to add the nutrients separately whether specific nutrients or other forms, one commonly used “nutrient” is Diammonium phosphate “DAP” as it provides nitrogen and phosphorus for the yeast to feed on. Another commonly used nutrient for home based pure sugar washes is tomato paste as it cheap and easy to find. Personally i typically always do rum washes even if making a neutral spirit as the molasses provides more than enough latents nutrients for the yeast anyways.
But standard “Yeast Energizers” that are easy to find, you need very little of “1 tsp per 5 gals” They’re actually typically composed of DAP, old yeast hulls, vitamin B, tricalcium phosphate, magnesium sulphate and the likes. It’s typically used for stuck fermentations where the yeast have lagged out.
Now saying all that if your washes are super high sugar concentrations, or are only straight sugar with no extra latent nutrients, you should definitely add some form of nutrients to help along the active yeast. But for most washes that are done with in acceptable ranges <14% and are say corn, rye, molasses, fruit or whatever you typically don’t need to add anything as there will be latent nutrients present and at most you may just need to over pitch your yeast amount.
So as long as your not stressing the yeast through high alcohol concentrations or nutrient barren washes you typically don’t have anything to worry about.
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The answer I was looking for. Been reading and watching vids till my eyes bleed. Think I got a good grasp off what needs to be done to get a good yield.
Thinking banana flavored green dragon should be tasty too.
Thank you good man.
Now to build a better column. Looking at around $120.oo bucks to build it. Copper ain’t cheep.
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Banana Kush Green Dragon 
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If I had some banana tasting weed it would be double banana dragon.
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good luck just take your foreshot cuts in separate containers and your tails, then you can decide afterwards what you want to keep with your hearts. Speaking of which i should distill my batch tonight as im sure its done settling out, just haven’t looked yet
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