Home Distiller

I am new to the forum and I have read most of the stuff I was supposed to read before posting .
Forgive me I am new and trying to start a new hobby, I have a powdery white mold on top of my mash.
My mash consists of malted corn and cracked corn that I malted and cracked .
It has been 4 days now and smells somethin awful and sour .
Will i have to dump my mash?

Did you sanitize properly, is there a ferment lock on top? Four days isn't really enough time to grow anything when all precautions are taken. Without though you will quickly run into problems.

In the words I got when I first posted...read more on the fermentation method, find out how to make the beer before really trying to get difficult. Read more.

Check out this thread http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7002 and see if it has any relevance or similarity to your problem, there's also some solutions there. My advise would be if it is similar, dump it out, you will just have problems with it later if not sooner with subsequent fermentations.

Ive seen that powdery white stuff on my Backset, But never on my mash that I'm ready to run..

Thank you all for your time and replies.
I would guess it may have been my corn I have an abundance of it !
I know alot of farmers who give me the stuff and most of it has sat in a bin all winter
probably with mice & birds.
Maybe I should buy the stuff from a feed store?
And I have a recipe that calls for sweet feed it sounds good but,
I am a newb and was wondering what you all think I got it from copper moonshine stills .com
SWEET FEED MOONSHINE # 5 gallon bucket of sweet feed (Sweet feed has several different grains and molasses making it a great tasting whiskey.) one package of yeast (using distillers yeast will increase quality and quantity) # 5 pounds sugar # water Put enough feed to cover bottom of 5 gallon bucket a good 4 inches deep Add 5 pounds of sugar. Fill 1/2 full with boiling water. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Let it set for 90 minutes and then finish filling with cool water. Add the yeast after it has cooled to the recommended temperature on the yeast label. Cover with lid--our lid has a little cap that screws on, leave it loose to breathe. 4-5 days later it's ready to run! This is an old-timer recipe and works quite well. My liquor is always 150-180 proof. I don't recommend this for pot stills unless you filter it by pouring it through a pillow case into a 5 gallon bucket after it has finished fermenting. Otherwise the meal will settle and burn in the bottom of your still. Some folks leave the solids in the pillow case and tie it off where it will not touch the bottom of the still.
I was wondering about the package of yeast it says one package but I have a 4.5 oz pack of turbo 48 should I use it on this?
Again thank you !

The short answer is no. The long answer is read more.

That sweetfeed recipe is not too bad. You only need around a tablespoon of yeast. (Any kind but Turbo will work)

The feed mill ain't gonna give you any better corn. They buy the corn from farmers in the surrounding area, blend it together, bag it, jack up the price, then sell it to city slickers who don't know where else to buy it. That's the way all middleman businesses work. Best to get it directly from the manufacturer (the farmer.) But, of course I would say that, I farm well over a thousand acres myself.

But, I digress. I'm calling dirtybucketitis or airlockfailureosis on this one.

You don't mention if this is your first attempt at a mash or not, I suspect that it could be.
Can I suggest that this mashing can be a tricky business if you are just beginning and that you may be better off starting with a very simple sugar wash to get a bit of experience first rather than jumping in at the deep end with cooking and malting etc. That way you will gain practice at sterilizing, handling yeast and the whole fermenting process.
Not trying to put you off, just that crawling comes before walking or running and what you are trying at the moment is a rather brisk walk.
Cheers.

tracker0945 wrote:You don't mention if this is your first attempt at a mash or not, I suspect that it could be.
Can I suggest that this mashing can be a tricky business if you are just beginning and that you may be better off starting with a very simple sugar wash to get a bit of experience first rather than jumping in at the deep end with cooking and malting etc. That way you will gain practice at sterilizing, handling yeast and the whole fermenting process.
Not trying to put you off, just that crawling comes before walking or running and what you are trying at the moment is a rather brisk walk.
Cheers.

Yes this is my first attempt, and I jumped in with both feet!!!
I knew there would be problems and was really expecting a ton of them >
wasnt really expecting to drink anything for awhile....I am keeping a journal of my projects .
I am truly amazed at how the old timers made theirs without sugar and yeast and would love to be a traditionalist
If there is such a thing. in the back of the mind anyone who gets into somethin always wants their first time doing it to be killer
And to be honest with you all, I wanted to see what would happen !
I used an 8 gallon keg , was wiped out and not sterile! I malted 5lbs of corn around four days in a sheet on a glass picnic table I sprayed it down once daily until it started to sprout It actually didnt have sprouts it had roots!
They were pretty sweet though!
and then I cracked 10 lbs of corn with a ball bat for awhile then switched to a blender set to chop and then I mixed it all together in my wiped out not sterile 8 gallon keg and added water covered it with a sheet and pulled a bungee tight around it
On the second day I took the cover off it was starting to work I could hear it and on the third day it was really bubbling it still smelled sweet as well so I took the cover off to see it and it looked ok then on the forth day I took the cover off to have a look and it was covered with a small layer of dry white powdery mold and it started to smell very sour!!!
Now I have UJSMM and will start my walk here!
By the way, this place is truly a blessing to us all !!

It must have been really smelly bucketitis to have mold after 4 days. Clean out your keg; Sterilize. UJSM or a sugar wash are a good starting points. However, when you get back to mashing boil hell out of your cracked corn ; throw in your malted corn and some malt for enzymes at about 150 ;mash for a while and try an iodine test. Between sanitizing you keg and boiling the corn , you should get rid of your contamination problems. Another thing you can do is to make sure you have a good dose of yeast. If the yeast starts out fast there's little chance of something nasty getting a start.

It sounded as if you had a good start except for sanitation. I'd give it another go. If you want to learn how to mash, read 'The Complete Joy of Home Brewing ' by Charlie Papazian Avon Books. It'll give you a hell of an education!

Boil some water in the keg and dump it out while you are doing your mash. That will sterilize it while you are doing your mash sterilizing.

These last few posts emphasise what I was talking about.
If you are new to the process, start simple, not many things to go wrong.
I realise that you are in a hurry but - One step at a time
Sugar wash.
Sterilize equipment,
Water,
Sugar,
Nutrients,
Yeast.
If that works, then move on an extra step, maybe to a DWWG where the extra step is boiling some wheat germ, after that, go on to boiling grains etc.
Take it easy and learn along the way.
Good luck and Cheers.

Hi folks,

Hope to revive an old topic, because I have a new problem. We've a new 10 gallon Gibbs coming of age. It's now 6 month old, and the liquor is a vibrant amber color, with district flavors of vanilla, cinnamon, and an 'old harness leather'. The mouth is full, buttery, suggesting a oily fill with a likolrish foundation. Back taste is slightly sharp, almost like a grapefruit citrus. Overall, its has a smoothness, and warming character that is typical of what we want. But, Honestly, it's really different than anything we've ever had come out before, but then it is the first 10 gallon barrel we have ever done.

While I find this interesting, and even like the whiskey, I'm concerned about the nose. It has a faint, almost barnyard smell that emits immediately, followed by an old corn aroma. Am I rushing it, or should I wait?

Anyone had a similar experience, and if so, how did you deal with the aroma, and keep the flavors?


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