Funky odors on corn mashes

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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stdistillers
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Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by stdistillers »

Hey all - new members and our first post here. Searched for a similar topic but couldn't find anything directly applicable, so forgive us if we cover old ground.

Have been successful on making neutral spirits and decided on making a corn whisky for Thanksgiving. Planned it to be a combination of three corn mashes. All of them were 80/10/10 with corn, 6-row, and malted rye. The first mash was flaked corn and Fleishmanns yeast, while the last two were made with cracked corn and DADY.

The first mash came off great. Smelled great, nice clear wort and finished with an ABV of about 8.64%. That batch we distilled and collected hearts from about 160 proof to about 120 proof and kept the rest as tails.

Our last two batches have not been so great. They both smelled sour and had obvious oils on the surface of the mash. The mashes were both about 5.6% to 6.5% prior to distilling. We ran them both and found the spirit was very strong and came off at lower proofs. Generally we couldn't collect at more than 130 proof and stopped at about 110 proof. Even that had a pretty strong odor. We use a hydrometer and test with feel and smell - but we aren't experts so that is shooting in the dark a bit.

What is the best way we can recover this whisky and make it as delicious as we want it to be?? Should we just recycle it all into another mash? Was the DADY the issue? Maybe we need to cook the cracked corn more. Looking for advice.

About the still, it is a 6 gal stainless pot, fitted with a 2" diameter column, reflux condenser, and baffles (a la Bokabob). We leave out the packing for the whisky runs and have a Leibig condenser on the outlet. Everything is 100% copper except the pot.
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jonnys_spirit
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I would fecommend a two stage distillation collecting low wines on first run down close to zero proof then running the low wines from a couple runs together in yojr spirit run. I've been doing this and works great. Last time did a three distillation run and that works great too. 1st and second distillation I just collected way into tails. Down to 20 proof or so and added some infected backset to top off for the next runs. My boiler is a 13gallon milk can with 5500W element. I use a simple copper pot still column with liebig.

Cheers!
-j
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i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
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Still Life
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by Still Life »

I am puzzled at what caused your predicament in the first place.
The cracked corn and DADY shouldn't be to blame.
The cracked corn is "healthy", right? I mean no mold or vermin?
I wonder if it was from the bottom of the grain elevator or something.
stdistillers
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by stdistillers »

jonnys_spirit wrote:I would fecommend a two stage distillation collecting low wines on first run down close to zero proof then running the low wines from a couple runs together in yojr spirit run.
We figured that was probably the best approach. We are going to try another couple batches of the same setup, only this time we are going to try boiling the corn for a bit before we steep, and also go back to the Fleishmans. We were thinking run those down to low wines, and then add back in the stuff we got off those couple smelly batches, then hope for some good cuts on the spirit run.

Let you know how it turns out!

JD
stdistillers
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by stdistillers »

Still Life wrote:I am puzzled at what caused your predicament in the first place.
The cracked corn and DADY shouldn't be to blame.
The cracked corn is "healthy", right? I mean no mold or vermin?
I wonder if it was from the bottom of the grain elevator or something.
Me too. Couldn't figure how it was so different from the flake. We didn't boil the cracked corn before hand. Do you think we had competing bacteria and spoiled the batch during the ferment?
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Still Life
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by Still Life »

You'll get a better starch yield by boiling the corn, too. I assumed you were doing that already.
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acfixer69
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by acfixer69 »

Flaked corn and cracked corn are two very different grains in regards to gel temps and times for conversion. Read a bit on it it is an easy search.

AC
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bilgriss
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Re: Funky odors on corn mashes

Post by bilgriss »

Good advice, that. Go to the top of the page, click the "HD Google Search link", and in the search box of the page that pops up, add "Flaked corn vs cracked" after a space. You'll get lots of info.
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