Expert: John Snyder - 5/22/2008

Question
hy, first off: as i understand it, malted barley contains sugars that have been converted from starch.  right?  then how much fermentable sugar is in x amount of malt?  i guess what im asking is how much malt and or malted barley should i steep in five gallons of water to produce a 20% alc/vol mash?  i have a distillers yeast that can achieve that much alc so now im down to measurements of ingredients.  i don't want to be wastefull but i want to use enough so i don't come up short.  any help is much appreciated.  thankyou for your time, Corn Likker Carson

Answer
Let me say first:Malted barley does not contain sugar converted from starch.Malt contains starch,that has to be converted to fermentable sugars during the mashing process.

Please give some additional info,so that I can provide you with correct figures.

Which one of these are you using:ground malt,dry malt extract,or liquid malt extract?

What are your mash water temps,and time cycles?


                thanks
                 John