moldy corn mistake

[bigbuck]

so I was in the process of putting together a rather large corn mash, got my water up to 150 degrees to melt sugar in fermenter, dumped in 90lb of sugar and wanted to add corn while sugar water was still really hot so I cut bag open and began to pour, low and behold when I tipped bag all the way upside down a big kur plunk hit water and it was a giant lump of moldy corn, I grabbed a strainer and scooped moldy corn that was floating on top, so my question is will yeast (bakers yeast)be able to overcome this? I had plans on distilling this run 2 or 3 times over, I hate to dump out 90 lb of sugar, so will this mash be ok to run???
thanks

[Expat]

I guess it depends on who wins the race. If there was one moldy spot the spores we're probably on everything.

Suggest pitching an extra large yeast starter asap.

[bigbuck]

so will spirits be ok if it gets distilled a few times?

[Pikey]

The hot water's on your side - Personally, I'd bring the lot up to HOT again, to kill any mould spores (yeast as well) - then re-pitch the yeast and any enzymes / malt as per original.

Who knows what "products" the mould has already made which may "Pass over" - as flavour profile, but the actual Mould should stay where it is - just as yeast does (another form of "mould" ) when we "cook" that !

Whether you want to drink it ? I dunno !

[bigbuck]

well damn the luck, it seems to be moving along good so far, just want to make sure its safe to consume if I distill it twice, got me a lil nervous, I went ahead and pitched extra yeast

[seamusm53]

Should not be a health/safety issue if its mold on corn. Ergot on rye is a very different and dangerous matter.

[bigbuck]

yep it was in the bottom of a corn bag, looks like the bag may have been setting on a wet floor

[bigbuck]

so mash seems to be doing fine, will it help if I just strip it off when it finishes and add it to feints and run it a second time? I could not re heat (boiler is not big enough)
thanks

[Expat]

Strip it when completed as suggested. If you can detect an undesirable flavor then you have the answer. Consider: use of infected dunder is common in rum making, it makes interesting flavor, and that stuff is a lot more infected than what you have. Don't fret until you're sure you have an issue. Making sure the yeast colony up and running was the best defense, short of boiling it.

In my experience, if the bad flavor can come through once it likely will on further runs. So re running probably won't help if there was an issue.

[bigbuck]

thanks expat, I sure hope this works out, mash smells right no signs of mold smells in it

[bigbuck]

everything seemed to be ok with mash

[8Ball]

I had some malted corn “go bad” on me. Had a green mold that smelled cheesy. Did some searching and did not find anything that said it wasn’t safe. Did a good boil on the corn, and mashed with high temp enzymes and a little malt. Stripped and ran a spirit. 9 months on charrred oak and it is amazing!! Good luck with yours.