Malting corn for brewing

Corn is not usually malted. It can be done, I don't have the details, but I would expect the steeping and germination temps to more like 30C, rather than 15C for barley. To get reasonable enzyme development, it will need to grow quite a bit, and you will have high malting losses.

In Africa. corn grits are used, it is not malted.

In central america, they used to cook it then get virgins or young boys to chew it, and spit it into a pot. The saliva provides the amylase enzymes to break the starches into sugars.

Have fun Robert

I believe that in Equador, they also do something similar to the Japanese process for sake; they hang bags of moist corn where they can catch mould and yeast spores, and the mould breaks down the starches to sugars much like in koji. So I guess the koji route is another option :)

i aplogize all i could think of was YUCK

so i will learn if a virgin spits into my beer she is doing what

???

I was wanting to make a beer using chopped corn from the feed store. It was pointed out to me here that whole and chopped corn is not degermed, which removes the fat from the corn. Now flaked corn, corn meal, corn grits and corn starch has been degermed, to remove the oil. It is required by the FDA, because the oil will turn rancid. Using oats which has a lot of fat in it can cause your beer to go bad also. The problem is air coming in contact with the oil, during racking, bottling, etc. I have heard of Oatmeal stouts turning rancid in the bottle.

So, that being said here is my suggestion on how I would attempt to make a non-beer of Corn as the base.

1) Listed by order of preference, I would use: a) Flaked corn (from your homebrew supply) b) Corn grits c) Corn starch d) Corn sugar e) Corn meal (you will need to has rice hulls to keep it from sticking) 2) You will need to do a cereal mash to unwind the starch molecule so it can be converted to sugar (not necessary with flaked corn or corn sugar). You can accomplish this by boiling it or letting the corn start to rot. I recommend boiling it. There is a great article on doing a cereal mash in this issue of BYO. 3) Boil the corn for 20 minutes stirring it constantly to keep it from scorching. Boil it in just enough water to give it a thick gruel consistency. 4) Have your mash tun with the proper amount of water at a temp that will be at about 150-155F after adding the boiling corn cereal mash. Then add some amylase (SP?) enzyme (or use 6-row grain, which is high in amylase enzymes). Hold at mash temp for 60 - 90 min. this will convert the starch to sugar. Do an iodine test to see to see if the starches have converted. You can test the conversion by putting a few drops of idophore in a little of the wort in a white lid or bowl. If it darkens (purplish) it still had non converted starches. 5) If it does not convert fully, I would bring the wort to a boil, and boil for another 60 min. then cool back down to mash temp and add more amylase enzymes. I guess you could add Beano tablets to the fermentor to help with the conversion. The Beano contains an enzyme that will help convert more of the nonfermentables into fermentable sugars. 6) Next you need to sparge to get all the sugars into your brew pot.

7) Then boil and add hops as per your hop schedule.

Now this non-beer beverage will not have much flavor. I guess if you boil it a long time it may add some flavor, but I have no idea what that flavor will be. Keep us posted. I hope what I typed makes sense....

Sorry, about your original question. A friend of mine did try to malt corn several times, but gave up eventually.

I have been thinking about formulating a November brew with a substantial (if not entirely) corn component since I usually have access to a lot of deer corn around that time. I hadn't thought about the oil aspect though. (November is the start of deer season in Texas). I thought it would be cool to have some deer corn beer at the Hunting lodge.

This reminds me of a suggestion I saw on my packet of Koji, that it could be used on pearled barley or other grains to convert the starches. I suppose it could be used entirely on corn or even potatoes, but I wonder if anyone has tried it? Do you think it would have any effect on the oils?

From what I understand it is the O2 that will allow the oil to go rancid. If you have ZERO O2 in your beer it will be okay (from what I understand), but how could you bottle without getting some O2 in the bottle. You would have to flood the bottle with CO2 the way you use a counter pressure bottle filler. If you keep it cold it will preserve it also (longer anyway) or you could just drink it up. I am not sure about your Koji. I guess it will convert it. I read that before 1962 the only enzyme that was used for any alcohol fermentation was derived from barley malt. I think we have different sources for the Amylase enzyme now. I here they have developed an enzyme that will survive boiling temperatures (wish I could get ahold of that). That would be a great enzyme to convert the corn starch, You could convert the starch while you boiled the corn! Back on the oil, they uses corn mash to make corn whiskey, but they remove the oil by distilling. By the way, what is Koji?

Koji is a type of fungus that is used in producing Sake. Although I have not made Sake myself, I have some Koji spores because I plan to brew some (some day). Apparently you infect a batch of rice with Koji (making Kome-Koji) and the fungus breaks down the starches, which then are broken down by yeast. I read at some point of a recipe for a beer type drink using pearled barley (like you use in soup) where instead of mashing it, you just cook it like rice and use the koji to break it down. I would imagine that if it works for barley, it would probably work for any vegetable.

I couldn't tell you if it uses amylase; since I don't read or speak Japanese my knowledge of Koji is pretty limited. The directions I have (from visionbrewing.com) say you make a kome-koji starter, and then pitch it with yeast into a vat of steamed rice. I guess the koji breaks down the starch, then the yeast eats it, then voila...Sake. I like the possibilities it presents, however, especially for vegetable-type brews. For example, you could probably use it to make an entirely potato brew.

One day I hope to experiment with it.

A comment about that Koli. I guess it is a controlled rot. I believe that when potatoes start to rot, the starch chain breaks down and can me fermented into alcohol by the yeast. I guess the Koji breaks it down in a similar manner. Just a thought. Hey, try a rotten potato beer!

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:31:31 GMT, "Arlen's Ashes" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

If you put koji amylase into Google you'll get almost 1,000 hits, some of which seem to say that Koji (Aspergillus oryzae) produces amylase, but I'm not a chemist, so it's tough slogging through those masses of verbiage.

So, amylase it is....