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Not so long ago I decided to cook mash for the first time in my life. I am an inexperienced person in this matter, I have never cooked anything stronger than kvass on my own, and then it hit my head – I want it.
The process, it seems, at first glance, is not complicated, but I had one small question – is it necessary to mix the mash. In order to figure it out, I had to call a neighbor.
The story was sent by our new subscriber Dmitry Yu.
In what cases can you mix the mash
My neighbor has been making moonshine for several years now, which the whole entrance knew about. So I had no doubts about his professional skills, and we had known him for a long time.
It was he who told me that mash can be mixed only in three cases:
- At the beginning of the process. According to a neighbor, when all the ingredients are added to the container, they must be thoroughly mixed. After that, a water seal is installed on the container and after that it is better not to touch the mash until a certain point.
- The only case when the water seal can be removed during fermentation is when adding additional ingredients, such as yeast. In this case, the liquid also needs to be mixed well.
- To degas liquid. This is done just before the distillation, when the water seal has already been removed and there is no need to install it anymore.
Note! Braga should not be heated above 30 ° C.
In general, the most important thing that I understood from the neighbor’s explanations is that you cannot remove the water seal unnecessarily. Although I am an inexperienced person in moonshining, I still did not skip physics at school. Therefore, I had such a question – what if you do not mix the mash, but shake it.
The neighbor, of course, was impressed by the degree of my responsibility during my school years, but he said that you can shake the mash only to degas it. This is done within 2-3 minutes before the removal of the water seal.
What happens if you mix the mash outside of these cases
In general, the neighbor’s lecture impressed me. Of course, I understood that special circumstances are needed to stir the mash. Well, at least not some specific phase of the moon or stars, although it pleases.
However, by nature I am a very curious person, so I could not help but ask my mentor this question. And what, in fact, will happen if I suddenly forget all his advice and still decide to mix the mash outside of the indicated cases?
At this stage, it is better not to touch the mash.
The answer turned out to be simple and understandable, although it was accompanied by several obscene expressions in which the neighbor described his attitude to my curiosity. According to him, it has already somewhat … tired him.
And this, by the way, was the only one of his words that I would venture to print here unchanged.
As for mixing the mash, everything turned out to be simple here. If it is stirred in the middle of the process, sugar liquid will rise from the bottom of the container, which will mix with alcohol. This will slow down the fermentation process indefinitely.
Important! If the liquid is not mixed in time, then in the worst case, the mash will simply have to be poured out, because it will not only lose its taste, but will become really dangerous to human health.
How to mix mash
My curiosity has progressed. It became interesting to me, and how, in fact, to mix the mash, if this process has so many subtleties? With this question, I turned to a neighbor.
It did not immediately satisfy my interest. At first, the neighbor decided to give me classes in linguistics again. The topic was predictable – obscene expressions that characterize the extreme degree of human fatigue from unnecessary questions. It is understandable – he is a busy man: moonshine will not overtake itself.
In general, the main thing here is improvisation.
Then the neighbor nevertheless changed his anger to mercy and explained in detail how to stir the mash:
- plastic paddle;
- stainless steel tube;
- magnetic stirrer (yes, it turns out there are some);
- built-in agitator (they are installed on some fermentation tanks);
- aquarium pump (my fish lead a sober lifestyle, so this option had to be abandoned immediately).
Note! Braga can be mixed with products from almost any material except wood. The main thing is that the mixer reaches the bottom.
How to speed up the fermentation process
Here my curiosity entered a new stage. If stirring the liquid slows down the fermentation process, what are some ways to speed it up?
The neighbor just looked at me with a heavy look and did not even swear. Apparently, the vocabulary is over.
In general, he gave the answer immediately. It turns out that there are several options to speed up fermentation:
- heating the mash to 28 ° C, but not higher;
- installation of a large hydraulic module;
- increase in the amount of yeast by 1,5 times from the required initially;
- the use of turbo yeast (yes, yes, there are, it turns out, such ones, I myself heard about them for the first time);
- adding dressings (rye crusts, peas, corn).
I think now I’m unlikely to get any good advice from a neighbor about the intricacies of making mash. I don’t know why, but now he even stopped answering my phone calls.
A couple of guesses, of course, there are, but I’m not sure. Maybe you will advise? No, not about the neighbor, but about the mash.
Dear readers, remember that alcohol abuse harms your body. Take care of yourself!