Double Fermented Sour Corn Mash from Scratch

[pintoshine]

I had a really successful mashing tonight. I got an sg of 1.090 from corn mash. An hour After I pitched the yeast it kicked.

Have you ever done a double fermentation?

This one I fermented for lactic acid first.
I added water to ground, whole corn untill the corn was covered by half its height. with water.

The germ floated to the top. I punched that down for three days. On the fourth day it didn't rise anymore so the lactic acid was complete. Boy was it sour.
note: The second day it smelled like puke. This is normal. The first bacteria to start the fermentation smells really bad. The lactobacillus takes over the second day and creates an acid environment that kills the first bacteria. It just smells lightly like sour milk on the fourth day

I then added more water to keep it just thin enough to stir and gelled it at 180 for half an hour by carefully heating it from the bottom on low heat and a thick bottomed pan while stirring constantly. I cooled it to 160 and pitched the rolled, 2 row pale malted barley, about 11 percent(1 part malt to 8 parts corn) and kept it between 150 and 160 for an hour and a half. Corn converts at a bit higher temp than barley or rye.

I checked it toward the end with iodine from the pharmacy. I was bluish-purple the first couple times, brown after an hour and 15 minutes and red after an hour and a half. I would have settled for brown but red is nicer because more suger gets converted and leaves less dextrin.

I let it cool until I could touch it.

I ran it through a large, loose weave cotton bag. I poured the wash through and squeezed. The acid coagulated the trub and stopped the trub from stopping up my bag. ( homemade bag I constructed from material at the fabric store) I would have used a flour sack but I don't know where to get them anymore. By filtering now, I don't have to worry about excess tannins from the barley hulls or corn oil from the germ. Both of these make a harsh drink.

The finished SG was 1.090. This will ferment to about 12% very quickly. The final pH was 3.7 to 4.0. It's hard to tell with colored pH indicator in light yellow wash.

The converted wash tasted like a really sour version of malt extract wash.
Odd though, now it smells like peaches fermenting.

When it gets through fermenting in three to four days, the rest of the trub should settle and I will rack it off. This way I don't have to worry about it caking on my electric element.

I'll keep you posted.