[gmac]

Popcorn works too but adds a slight biscuity toast flavor.

Popped or unpopped?

[Malticulous]

Hot air popped.



It sinks in as it absorbs water. It drains faster than all malt mashes do.

[denny]

I've often thought about popcorn, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

[bluesman]

Hot air popped.



It sinks in as it absorbs water. It drains faster than all malt mashes do.

At first I thought you were joking but you're obviously not. 

[Malticulous]

The only batch I've entered into a comp scored  37 (34 and 39.) It was the worst cream ale I've made too. K-97 seems different than when I used it before and the balance was too bitter.

[gmac]

Not sure if you're brewing or shipping fragiles overseas...  That just looks bizarre.

I forgot about the germ and oils.  Darn it.  I may try flaked corn that they use in calf starter.  Not sure what it's like but it's cooked and flaked and costs about 20 cents a pound and doesn't require a 4 hour round trip to get.  Worth the experiment at least.

[denny]

Make sure it doesn't have any "stuff" in it that you wouldn't want in your beer.

[tomsawyer]

you can get hominy in cans which is field corn, basically grits that have not been ground. I think they are cooked as well so you wouldn't need to geletenize. Don't know what it wouild taste like though. It has been trated with something (Lime i think, it that calcium carbonate? I think it's called cal in the prodcution of masa) to remove the husks and alter the protien.

Lime is calcium hydroxide, a base.  Check out the wiki article on hominy, its interesting.  The treatment dissolves the hull, as well as degrading some of the protein and gelatinizing the starches.  Seems like hominy would be a good material to use in a beer.

Hot air popped.



It sinks in as it absorbs water. It drains faster than all malt mashes do.

Whats that one pound of popcorn?

[gmac]

Make sure it doesn't have any "stuff" in it that you wouldn't want in your beer.

Hey, you're the one growing the 3rd arm.  If I grew a tail, it would be handy for brushing away all these pesky flies...

I'll be sure it's just plain corn.  They also have feed barley, wonder how hard it would be to start malting my own... 

One thing I'm finding about this hobby is that it's like fly fishing.  Take a ball of yarn that costs 2 bucks, cut it into 100 little pieces and sell them in packages for tying flies and that same yarn is worth about $125 bucks a ball.  I know flaked corn won't break me but at over $2500 a tonne, someone is making a killing and it isn't the guy growing it.

[johnf]

I'm not sure I would want anything biscuity or toasty in a cream ale but popcorn might be an interesting alternative in a English ale.

I've gotten very good results in terms of a good corn flavor from Bob's Red Mill polenta/grits bought from a store with good turnover on them. Definitely better than flaked corn bought from a LHBS that generally has very good turnover (a typical yeast package bought there is less than a week from manufacture).

[Malticulous]

Whats that one pound of popcorn?

It's two pounds, but if I take out the old maids it's like 1.75 pounds. I don't think the whole kernels convert.

Here it is in a glass at a couple of weeks after brew day.



It's a base of half 6-row and half pils with 20% popcorn.

[weithman5]

on my way to the thrift store to get a hot air popper

[gmac]

The only batch I've entered into a comp scored  37 (34 and 39.)

I've never entered a contest.  Is that good or bad?

[Malticulous]

It's good for me.  

I've only entered six comps, about 20 beers total. I have six ribbons from them.  I average a 34 or so. I bet if I could send 40 beers to each comp I could get some 40+'es.

[gmac]

But what's the best you can do?  I'll have to enter a contest some day but for now I'll just be the judge (BTW, I got first place in my last solo contest)