Fresh Sweet Corn

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PNW Smoker
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Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by PNW Smoker »

So what about using fresh corn right off the cobb? Where I live the corn is cheap and is ready for harvest.

Instead of using cracked corn from the feed store what about just cutting corn right off the cobb and using that?

I searched but didn't get a specific answer to the quesiton.

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Post by HookLine »

Never used corn in a ferment. But I have grown it for personal use and we always ate it straight from the plant, with no cooking. It is much tenderer and sweeter that way. If you leave it for even just a few hours after picking it loses a lot of that tenderness and sweetness.
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Post by Uncle Remus »

I've made it with fresh sweet corn on the cobb. To be totally honest it never really turned out a whole lot different than whiskey I make with dried rolled feed corn. The yield was slightly better though, I guess it gave up more of it's starches to sugar during mashing.
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Post by PNW Smoker »

Uncle Remus wrote:I've made it with fresh sweet corn on the cobb. To be totally honest it never really turned out a whole lot different than whiskey I make with dried rolled feed corn. The yield was slightly better though, I guess it gave up more of it's starches to sugar during mashing.
I read that some of the best Moonshine to leave the state of Georgia was made with fresh sweet corn.

I'm going to have to give it a go.

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Well

Post by Uncle Jesse »

I used to live down the block from a distillery. They made 192 proof for Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers. Railroad car after railroad car were lined up, filled with high fructose corn syrup.

I believe fresh corn, especially within the first few hours of harvesting, would be a nice mash.
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Re: Well

Post by PNW Smoker »

Uncle Jesse wrote:I used to live down the block from a distillery. They made 192 proof for Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers. Railroad car after railroad car were lined up, filled with high fructose corn syrup.

I believe fresh corn, especially within the first few hours of harvesting, would be a nice mash.
I'll have to let you know how it goes. I'm thinking around 10-15 cobbs, cut clean, 5lbs sugar, 5gallons water, and bakers yeast.
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Post by goose eye »

silver king/queen aint bad for corn. couple three scrub tub full of kernels per barel. these boys aint much into grains
so im tole
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Re: Well

Post by TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY »

PNW Smoker wrote:
Uncle Jesse wrote:I used to live down the block from a distillery. They made 192 proof for Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers. Railroad car after railroad car were lined up, filled with high fructose corn syrup.

I believe fresh corn, especially within the first few hours of harvesting, would be a nice mash.
I'll have to let you know how it goes. I'm thinking around 10-15 cobbs, cut clean, 5lbs sugar, 5gallons water, and bakers yeast.
You won't get much of a yield from that amount of corn, oh wait your gonna sugar it. You'll get barely over a pound of corn off of that many ears. Give it a try, but I don't think you'll get alot of corn flavor.

I made some and used 75 pounds of corn(on the cob) and stripped it, and 20 pounds of wheat (cause i had it) converted it (no sugar) and got barely a gallon of 130 proof. That was back this past April, put some charred oak sticks in it. I gave it a taste bout a month ago and damn, I was suprised how good it was. I really don't like wheat in whisky, but this stuff rocks. I had to have the wife hide it from me, cause I want it to age somemore :D .
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Post by DestructoMutt »

but, who's hiding it from her? :lol:
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Post by wineo »

The advantage of using fresh corn is while you are fixin up your mash,you can throw some of that corn in a skillet,throw in a stick of butter,and a cayanne pepper,and eat while your waiting for your mash to finished.
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Post by junkyard dawg »

If I were going to the trouble of using fresh corn then I would only use fresh corn, and I'd get a lot more than 10... Leave out any sugar. Use malt or enzymes. 10 to 40 percent 6 row malt to mash with?? There are some great corn varieties... I don't know a single name but some taste great.. :D :D :D

I'd try it if I were you. I'd follow a real traditional recipe and use mostly good fresh corn. measure and adjust your specific gravity by adding water to a very sweet mash....

refractometers make this sort of mashing a lot easier. Good luck! Keep us updated.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by kurgan »

With current sweet corn varieties bred for high sugar content in the milk stage, is mashing/conversion even necessary? Could you take (fresh) enough of something like a sugar enhanced "Ambrosia" or "Silver King", pulverize it, add enough water to bring SG to a reasonable level, then pitch yeast (or not)? I know it's a shame to throw good eating corn into a mash, but i've done worse things :)
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by frozenthunderbolt »

kurgan wrote:With current sweet corn varieties bred for high sugar content in the milk stage, is mashing/conversion even necessary? Could you take (fresh) enough of something like a sugar enhanced "Ambrosia" or "Silver King", pulverize it, add enough water to bring SG to a reasonable level, then pitch yeast (or not)? I know it's a shame to throw good eating corn into a mash, but i've done worse things :)
Quite possibly. I would blanch the cobs first though. As soon as you pick sweet corn it starts to convert sugars to starches. This is why supermarket corn is crap, but if you pick your own and dump it into a bot of allready boiling water, it will be crazy sweet.

For booze i would (hypothetically) get a wicked bick pot of water boiling and then get a bunch of people to pick and shuck like mad enough to fill the pot, let it come to a boil again and then strain the cobs out and into cold water to stop the cooking process then cut the kernals free and add them back to some of the water they were first boiled in, blitz them with a stick blender or similar cook for a bit (perhaps with a bit of citric acid to help hydrolize and PH balance the wash) then allow to cool and settle out overnight.
If you feel like it you could take a SG reading from the clear liquid on top the next morning (probably a good idea), throw in a bit of DAP and perhaps a multi vitamin and some yeast of you choice (NOT TURBO).
Let it go mad until its all partied out and then run it - should be brilliant.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by Dnderhead »

figure out how much you going to ferment,,pick what you can, cut off the cob in say 1 hour , start ferment ,pick another "batch" proses and add to ferment.sort of a stepped ferment but all in one day.
by heating/blanching the corn your deactivating any enzymes.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by frozenthunderbolt »

Dnderhead wrote:figure out how much you going to ferment,,pick what you can, cut off the cob in say 1 hour , start ferment ,pick another "batch" proses and add to ferment.sort of a stepped ferment but all in one day.
by heating/blanching the corn your deactivating any enzymes.
Wont be any useful enzymes in corn that fresh- would need to dry then sprout first.
Blanching will however lock in the sugars rather than having them degrade to starches over time.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by Dnderhead »

there is some enzymes in fresh vegetables that is one reason they blanch.not as much but there anyway.
as corn ages the sugars turn to starch ,that is why it looses its sweetness. then in spring it has a bit of
enzymes that when dampened " kick start "the sprout/roots. as it sprouts it produces more enzymes to the point that the
plant can be on its own.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by kurgan »

If I have a bumper crop of sweet corn I may try this and post how it turns out. I'm not sure exactly how much corn I would need for a 5 gallon wash because I really don't know how much sugars are contained in a pound of fresh sweet corn off the cob. This seems like it may be hit or miss on my goal, which would be really good flavor.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by Dnderhead »

"don't know how much sugars are contained in a pound of fresh sweet corn off the cob."'
about 19% carbs and 3-4% sugars.

came back to add: its about 75% water
so it appears that you want almost all corn,and maybe add some enzymes.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by austontatious »

so for a 5gal wash, like 45lbs of corn with no water added, right? Just blend it or something and throw it in the mash pot with some amylase? I live in Iowa and in a few months I may have to try this!
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by Dnderhead »

if i was to try, id mash up the fresh corn add enzymes and see how thick it is.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by woodspryte »

so did any one ever perfect this recipe or get final results that were positive? I have a ton of sweet corn (not literally) but a lot anyway. was thinking about using this in place of dry corn to see how it worked out. I will likely have to combine because I have a 20 gallon distiller and need more volumn than I believe I will have with the corn alone but interested in how it would be.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by still_stirrin »

woodspryte wrote:so...I have a ton of sweet corn (not literally) but a lot anyway...thinking about using this in place of dry corn to see how it worked out.
It would work, but you'll still have to gelatinize it before saccharification.

Here's a similar inquiry and response: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=58770&start=30#p7428518
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by DanielBoon »

Dead link.
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

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DanielBoon wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:36 pm Dead link.
Some threads were left behind when the forum changed platforms
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by Bee »

I had some that someone made from fresh sweetcorn. No enzymes, no sugar added, was some of the best stuff I've EVER had!
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Re: Fresh Sweet Corn

Post by zapata »

No enzymes at all? Not even malt? No enzymes, no sugar sounds like it'd make a pretty weak wash. Sweet corn is sweet, sure, it's in the name. But it's still corn. A quick search says that the sweetest corns are 18% sugar by dry weight and 73% water, so it would take over 100 pounds of fresh sweet corn to give 5 pounds of sugar or... several hundred pounds to make a gallon of whiskey.

Not sayin nobody did it, just wondering exactly what they did.
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