Should I keep It?

[Specman]

Several weeks ago, I cooked an AG mash that was 70% steam rolled feed corn, 20% flaked rye and 10% 6-row. I made the mistake of starting it late in the day, added it to my fermenter (on the grain) that evening, and pitched DADY the next evening when temp got to 90F. It was already bubbling by then, so I assumed it was infected from the beginning. But I let it run. It never did completely dry which was a first for me - my OG was 1057 and FG was 1005 and it smelled sour and lactic. But I decided to stick with it based on people's comments about an infected fermentation can yield goodness.

I have made about 7 complete runs of AG since I got my still going back in April and have only made spirit runs on the first distillation. Yesterday was my first ever stripping run using this stinky wort.

I ended up with about 1.3G of low wines at 30% abv which was my target-ish based on the 8 gallons of wort and assumed ABV of around 6.5% or so. But the low wine smells almost as bad as the original wort, has a darkish tint to it, has some fusils floating on top along with some other dark cloudiness patches.

In its current state, is is not appealing.

My plan is to do four-five more similar runs to charge my 15g keggle for a spirit run in the future. My request from you folks is advice on whether I should just give up on this current mess and not risk contamination of my next runs that I will take much better care of to avoid a repeat. Or is there hope that this anomaly will make something better than it would have been otherwise, especially considering it will be diluted by better stripping run low wines.

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful input!

[Stonecutter]

My request from you folks is advice on whether I should just give up on this current mess and not risk contamination of my next runs that I will take much better care of to avoid a repeat. Or is there hope that this anomaly will make something better than it would have been otherwise, especially considering it will be diluted by better stripping run low wines.

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful input!

I’ve not tasted any low wines that were pleasing to the pallett.
I suggest you concentrate on finding out what went wrong before worrying about whether or not to keep your low wines.

It sounds like you’ve had an infection during fermentation and a puke during your run. Your current problems will become more than an “anomaly” until you figure them out.

[Dougmatt]

Agree with stonecutter. Sounds like a puke at a minimum which will clean up fine on the spirit run. The infection or off smell is where I would focus my troubleshooting and decision on keep or not.

[jonnys_spirit]

Low wines are normally pretty manky and I like it that way. I’d run it

Cheers,
J

[juana_b]

At least keep it for a future sac run

[Stonecutter]

Yeah, could be used as a sac run if nothing else. If it’s a scorch that gave you the discoloration then I’d leave the whole collection behind. But if it’s oils that have been pushed through (something I’ve only seen with molasses) or coloring brought over from a puke you should be ok to run it like Jonnys_spirit and Dougmatt suggested.
I get chicken shit pretty easily though and if I question the spirit at all it doesn’t make it into my barrels, honestly you’re situation isn’t something I’ve come across. But I’m pretty damn new. I’ve had a couple scorchers and I’ve had oils pass through. Without sampling the stuff myself it’s hard for me to give you a 100% answer.

Obviously if you have a boiler small enough to run just this batch again then I’d do that. Even if it doesn’t come out the way you want you could always throw it on some oak staves and come back to it in a few years.

[NZChris]

I don't pay much attention to the smell of low wines unless it smells like a burn on, or was stripped when it still had butyric acid present, (vomit).

If it's not one of those and it has a really objectionable odor, your best description of the fault is necessary if you want good advice for dealing with it.

[Specman]

Agree with stonecutter. Sounds like a puke at a minimum which will clean up fine on the spirit run. The infection or off smell is where I would focus my troubleshooting and decision on keep or not.

So full admission - from the beginning, the steam rolled corn was contaminated from the bag with some pellets. I tried to pull out what I could, but I knew there was more than corn in the bag. So molasses is more than likely. I was in a hurry and determined to mash that day, and I also was probably lax in keeping everything perfectly clean. I can look back and think about more than one spot where I messed this up. The funnel I used to transfer the mash to the fermenter could have been dirty, and the fermenter bucket could have been dirty too. I really don't think its a scorch. As I look at what I got out, it is now barely less than clear, so its not that bad. I intend to make another run and will start in the morning as opposed to 4 pm and rush it.

This is all a learning process, and I appreciate the experience here on this forum.

[NZChris]

There is probably nothing wrong with it that won't get cleaned up if you do a good job of the cuts. All of my strips, except for sugar wash neutrals, are cloudy with an oil slick when I shut the still down and many have a bit of puke at the start, mostly only the first one as I usually manage to learn from my mistake.

I've seen it posted that a wad of cotton or wool can catch the oils, but I never remember to try that trick on stripping day.