Sugarization of Cereal Whiskey Distillery
The main raw materials for cereal whiskey are corn, rye, wheat and malt, and malt accounts for a small proportion, about 10%. In areas where the addition of biological enzymes is prohibited to make whiskey, malt is necessary, and its role is to provide enzymes when saccharified to convert starch into fermentable sugars.
Each cereal whiskey distillery has its own raw material formula. Some use 100% corn, some use 100% rye + rye malt, some use corn + rye + malt, and some use corn + wheat + malt... Different formulas, the process of saccharification is different, because the gelatinization temperature and operation requirements of each grain are different.
Cereal whiskey distillery is very different from malt whiskey distillery when it comes to saccharification. When malt whiskey distillery is used to saccharify, it usually adds hot water at different temperatures 3 times. Cereal whiskey distillery adopts a one-time saccharification method when saccharification, that is, formulate gelatinization methods and feeding steps according to the gelatinization requirements of different grains, and converts starch from different grains into fermentable sugars and dextrins at one time.
Let me give you an example of formulating corn (main ingredient), rye (excipient ingredient) and malt. Possible operations are:
(1) First, the corn crusher is gelatinized at high temperature and high pressure. After the corn starch is gelatinized, the temperature is reduced to about 80℃ and then the rye crushed. After the rye starch is gelatinized, the malted crushed will be cooled to 60~65℃ and the malt crushed.
(2) Mix corn crushed and rye crushed, and perform high-temperature and high-pressure gelatinization. After the starch gelatinization is completed, cool down to 60~65℃ and then add malt crushed.
The above two possible operating methods are to gelatinize the starch at high temperature first, and then convert the gelatinized starch into fermentable sugars and dextrins at one time through the enzyme in the malt.
In the previous article introducing the saccharification of malt whiskey distillers, there is a way to first mix all the malt crushed rice with water of 45~50℃, and then increase the temperature to about 70℃ to saccharify. So can this be used to produce cereal whiskey?
This method cannot be used if there are corn and other grains in the raw materials that require higher temperatures to gelatinize. If the raw materials are rye and wheat, since the gelatinization temperature is around 70°C, this method can theoretically be used. When brewing malt whiskey, 100% barley malt is used. The amount of β-glucanase is sufficient to destroy a large amount of cell walls and release starch in a short period of time (about 15 to 20 minutes). When brewing cereal whiskey, the proportion of malt is small, and the amount of β-glucanase is relatively small, which takes a long time to destroy a large number of cell walls, which will lead to a decrease in saccharification efficiency and is not in line with the current situation of large yields of cereal whiskey. Therefore, it is the most efficient choice to saccharify by mixing the higher temperature first and then lowering the temperature with the malt crushed (or biological enzymes can also be used if legally permitted).
When I visited the Cereal Whiskey Distillery, I saw a bunch of valves and pipes. One advantage of high-temperature gelatinization is that it can reduce the viscosity of the grain paste, facilitate the pipeline transport of liquid, mix malt crushed, and mix yeast solution. If the grains are not completely gelatinized, it may cause pipelines to be blocked and eventually the entire winery will be shut down for maintenance.
