Cereal cooker

[KeatingFarm]

Hello,

We have a small family farm in British Columbia, Canada and we are converting an old dairy into a taproom brewery. A long time dream is coming true!

We plan for cereal additions (raw/untorrified wheat and rye). In some cases 60%+ of the grain bill.

At my scale (<7bbl, thanks eight foot ceiling) it is tough to justify a three vessel (M, L, K/W) system but I am committed to brewing beers that I can grow at least adjunct grains for on the farm. I have access to well-modified malted barley grown in province. This is for a taproom only brewery with some take away beer.

My issue:

I am thinking of gelatinizing in a heated mash mixer and then adding additional liquor and malt to avoid a separate cereal cooker. Or is a separate cereal cooker essential, in your opinion? If so, what size? Would the lack of a cereal cooker destroy any production advantage even with an eventual pre-run tank and separate whirlpool?

I found that there are not many smaller breweries doing this as nearly everyone is single infusion (many don’t even really get into step mashing). I am looking for thoughts on brewing with raw adjuncts at a smaller scale.

Everyone I talk to about it seems to be doing a compromise or a one-off beer style experiment, not as main taps.

I would also like to say probrewer is an incredible resource and I really value any input.Thank you.

[gitchegumee]

Love your ideas. Using what you have with local ingredients for a local taste is commendable. I love cereal cookers & cereal mashes. The fact that others aren't doing much with their kit doesn't mean you shouldn't. To the contrary! I've had great success with using adjunct cereals on 2-vessel systems for our best-selling beers. There are many ways to approach this depending on your setup. I've boiled rice in the kettle while recirculating through the kettle's whirlpool to get a white paste that is fully gelatinized. Meanwhile, my very thick malt-based mash is resting at 52C. Adding the rice paste to the resting malt mash is done while mixing together with a paddle. The mixture of white paste & thick mash turns clear & thin very, very fast. Always intrigues me. I add rice hulls. The resulting cereal mash is now at 63C. Some call this a cereal double mash. Others an upward cereal mash. It's fairly typical of a larger brewery, albeit done with a dedicated cereal cooker, rather than the kettle. PM me for more ideas regarding more ideas and your particular brewhouse. The more you can do with your equipment, the further behind any competition gets. Best of luck!

[13356690973]

hello, glad to see your dream will come true and if you would like to do at least 2 batches brewing per day, a cereal cooker is necessary. Usually the cereal cooker capacity is 1/3~1/2 of mash tun , for example, if the mash tun is 7BBL, so the cereal cooker capacity had better to be 3BBL.
welcome to contact us any time if you need more help.
craftbeer@cnbrewery.com

[plh]

Going to watch this topic. Have you done any experimenting on a small scale (like 5 gallon batch small)?

I am planning a Rye beer cereal mash. 37.5% unmalted Rye, 37.5% Rye malt, 8.3% 60L Crystal Rye malt, 16.7% 2 row barley malt (240 dp). Recipe will be:
1.5quarts /lb water
130F 20 minute rest for the unmalted rye,
drop to 110F + add 5% 2 row for 30 minutes,
raise temp to 130F for 20 minutes,
raise temp to 156F for 20 minutes.
Drop temp to 150F add Rye malts and balance of barley malt and balance of water - hold for 60 minutes,
mash out 168F 15 minutes,
sparge, boil + hops. chill, add yeast, ferment.

[KeatingFarm]

A few years ago, I did a couple of 30L (6.5 US gal) batches and gelatinized raw wheat on the stove top. My stepping temps were not great but the beer had good body and head retention. Tasted pretty good via Homebrewer's Bias. The mash was as gitchegumee describes in that the overall consistency rapidly changes.

[13356690973]

hello George. the combined two vessels brewhouse can do the cooker function: mash/lauter tank do the mashing process and the kettle/whirlpool tank do the gelatinization process and then transfer the gelatinization to the mash/lauter tank mixing with mash is ok.This can save some cost on equipment. Do you received my proposal in email?thanks Hubert

[KeatingFarm]

hello George. the combined two vessels brewhouse can do the cooker function: mash/lauter tank do the mashing process and the kettle/whirlpool tank do the gelatinization process and then transfer the gelatinization to the mash/lauter tank mixing with mash is ok.This can save some cost on equipment. Do you received my proposal in email?thanks Hubert

Thanks, Hubert, I did.
I will be in touch if i have questions.