Just corn?

[the witch's brew]

Not sure where I heard it, but somebody told me that you could make a mash using just corn and water, because corn has yeast already in it. Is this possible? Or was that somebody an idiot?

[Dnderhead]

yes , yeast is not in corn but on it.it is everywhere with out adding yeast it is a hit and miss sort of thing this will depend where you are, the time of year, what trees/ flowers/fruits etc are around.yeast is attracted to sweet so when flowers are in bloom or fruit is ripe is the best time.what you git is what you have.good or bad.if you want this just mix up some malt,,juice,or sugar water and leave sitting outside. they will come.

[rubber duck]

You also have to malt the corn.

[MuleKicker]

if you malt the corn, and cook it, you kill the yeast. Or are you not cooking it when you malt. Are you talking about malting the corn, like sprouting and making ensymes? not adding malt to the corn?

[rubber duck]

Yes sprouting corn is another term for malting. The conversion temp won't kill wild yeast but it will damage it. What I would do is take some plain unmalted corn and add it to the fermentor after it cools, or maybe leave it open for the first evening.

[the witch's brew]

Since its possible, how do you think I should go about making a mash with just corn and water?

[Dnderhead]

depends on the corn you have, if it is whole, try sprouting some, if it does, then sprout what you want, crush this, then warm it in water to about 150f,,(66c) hold there for about 1 hour, leave this open ,out where the four winds blow, something will git to it.

for grain that has been cracked you should cook it ,this will take about a hour, then cool to 150f (66c) add crushed malted grain,
hold at this temp,for about a hour more, cool, and leave it setting open .

next is an old way to do it
put cracked corn in fermenter ,add boiling water,when cooled to 150f add malt and the same ,just leave it open

next step is sour mash, this was the same as above but when you distill you put grain and all in the still.
this will cook the grain , then you dump this while still hot over new grain and add malt when cooled ,use this for your next ferment.
neither of the last two is efficient. but neither is using wild yeast, best of luck.

[the witch's brew]

depends on the corn you have.

Say I just take a bunch of ears of corn, and cut the corn off. What would work with that?

And what would happen if I took that corn and just left it in some water to ferment?

[NcHooch]

Corn is full of starch, so fresh corn wouldn't need to be boiled like you boil dried corn to release the starch ...

but you still need to add some sort of malted grain that contains the enzymes that convert starch to sugar.

the mashing process (corn + malted grain at 150 degrees for 1-4 hours ) converts the starch to sugar ...then you add yeast and the fermentation process makes alcohol and co2.

hope that helps

NChooch