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Hi guys,

I've got the 3rd generation of a sour corn mash going, and this afternoon I saw this in the fermenter:


Milky white bubbles. I'm guessing this is a lactobacillus infection, but what do you all think? If so, is it OK to go ahead and run the batch? It's done fermenting and is ready for stripping.

Thanks for any input!

Looks like it might be, run it, bet ya it'll be the best one yet

What bellybuster said... Yes it's a lacto infection, and yes run it. Some say that the lacto. souring makes the best whiskey.

Oh man that looks crazy. I've never seen that before, does that happen a lot?

Thanks guys. I'll run it tomorrow. I've never seen this before, but this is only my fourth batch. I've been a longtime beer brewer so I'm familiar with lacto and it freaked me out under those settings. So I'm glad it's not a deal breaker for distilling. Can't wait to try it!

Well this morning that wash has a nasty acetone smell to it. I'm hoping that's just the funk that's floating on top and that the rest of it will smell and taste good. I plan to run this batch here in about an hour and we'll see.

Run it.

But as you know. At this point you should clean and sterilize the crap out of everything. You don't want it to spread and take over your other ferments.

If you wanted to experiment? You could take a sample off the top. In a sealed jar. So if you like what you get. You could add some of that culture to the end of another ferment. To try and replicate the results. I would just be careful with it. As not to infect any other ferments. Maybe even move these experiments in a different area. By itself.

Taste it. Yes, buck up, wipe aside the fuzz, and scoop up a shotglass full and bottoms up. If it tastes sour but otherwise fine. Youre good. If it tastes like puke, shit, baby diapers or sweaty gym socks, dump it. You have a bacteria infection. But there's lots of types of bacteria, some harmless, some not so harmless.

I taste everything before I run it. If nothing else you start to get a feel for what your hooch will taste like based on the input to the still. My favorite to date is rum wash. Damn that stuff is tasty, one day Im gonna ferment up a batch and keg it along side my beers.

PS: The sweaty gymsocks is debatable, sweat, barnyard animal smell and along those lines are generally Brettenomyces. You could run those and see what you think. (brett is in Belgian beer, not bad if you like that sort of thing). But the puke, shit and baby diapers is a definite dump, it doesnt distill out. Dont ask me how I know this. That putrid pukey shit smell comes from Clostridium bacteria, bad shit, sterilize everything floor to ceiling.

Lactobacillus is sour, no harm. Peddiococcus is buttery, butterscotch (added to Chardonay wine intentionally for that buttery character)

Thanks Jimbo, that's good information to know.

I dumped it all into a pasta strainer a few minutes ago to remove most of the grain. I tasted what came out. No puke, no shit, nothing nasty like that. Tastes sour, thick. I'm guessing lacto or brett. I can't wait to see how it compares to the first three generations after stripping.

I read in a whiskey book recently that it's a good idea to inoculate your whiskey wash with a known lacto bacillus, such as from yogurt kits (or something like that). It figures you're going to get lacto after a few days, so might as well choose which one instead of playing russian roulette.

Pick up some paint strainer bags. 3 pack for $2.99 at Menards. They work great for squeezing out the wash to minimize loss. They even have a handy dandy elastic along the top to snap around the top of a 5gal bucket. Clever. One of my favorite tools in the brewroom.

Well this is an odd run. I got some foreshots come off as expected (lots of acetones as expected). Then the output slowed to almost a stop and the temp shot up to about 188 before I started getting stuff coming off the still. Now it's hovering around 190. It's like I got foreshots and then a bunch of tails. I usually see consistent output from 172 on.

Anybody seen anything like this before?

Sure method of purposely infecting with lacto bacillus is to use a Pro-Biotic (digestive aid) capsule from the health food store.

I put one cap in a pound of sour dough bread and the alcohol takes off quit well. Add a portion of cracked rye and it eats the rye without the normal enzymes.

In the bread dough it smells flowery and a little sour.

Apneanderthal wrote:Well this is an odd run. I got some foreshots come off as expected (lots of acetones as expected). Then the output slowed to almost a stop and the temp shot up to about 188 before I started getting stuff coming off the still. Now it's hovering around 190. It's like I got foreshots and then a bunch of tails. I usually see consistent output from 172 on.

Anybody seen anything like this before?

Depends on your wash ABV and still type. My 8% washes in a potstill dont start running until the 190's.

I see, thanks Jimbo. This one was slightly different (more dunder, a little more grain). I didn't take a starting and finishing gravity reading. Just kinda wingin' this one. I seem to learn better that way!

Apneanderthal wrote:I didn't take a starting and finishing gravity reading. Just kinda wingin' this one. I seem to learn better that way!

As long as youre taking notes so you dont repeat mistakes I guess. Some people like to learn by evolution. It can be fun, if luck is on your side. It can also frustrate the bejesus out of you. A little prework can give you a predictable output to strive for (or that youre striving for).

Well I got about a half quart of low wines out of the gallon of wash, which is about the same as the first two generations. So I guess this one worked out.

Tomorrow, the spirit run of all three stripping runs combined! Super excited to have some finished whiskey.

Thanks again for the input.

Did you intentionally infect the batch or was this just some bacteria that got loose?

How big of a batch are you running?

This was a one gallon batch (I only have a one gallon still). This was a spontaneous infection, not on purpose.

After this batch, I had the low wines from three stripping runs and did the spirit run yesterday of all three combined. I got some smooth, great tasting whiskey. I grabbed a piece of scrap sugar maple I had sitting around the woodshop and toasted it in the oven for about 2 hours at 400 degrees. Then charred the outside a little bit using a propane torch. The house smelled awesome after the toasting. I left the jars of cuts to air out last night with coffee filters on top, and plan to taste/blend today, then throw the maple block in.

This makes me realize how much I want to upgrade to a bigger still. This was a lot of work for less than a quart of whiskey. Sure was fun though.

I recently was exposed to such an infection I believe on my sour mash.

Its second generation, cracked corn, rye/barley malt mash.

Its in its 4th day now and literally overnight it became infected. I showed it to my brother yesterday whom I hadnt seen it ages and it looked great! Now this morning it has little "spider webs" and tiny foamy bubbles. It doesnt smell infected, it smells a little like plaster(odd enough because it looks similar to plaster floating on mash as well) but I did what Jimbo said.

Cleared off a section and took a swig down and boy does it taste sour! Beautifully sour, no off tastes or shit tastes, I actually like it. So Iam assuming that this one will probably be fine to run? Itll probably drop to 1.000 or lower by tomorrow or the next day, its at 1.010-1.008 right now.

Iam not to worried about the infection, the taste of it or it spreading, Iam more concerned on how I got it? In terms of stilling ive ran my still about a dozen times maybe but Ive made successful mashes for months. Even before I was stilling I had my mashes pretty well down, so it befuddles me as to how it got an infection? Ive done the same thing for 6 months now, 2 or 3 batches a week and this has never happened. The only thing I can think of is that I accidentally let it stay uncovered and open in my closet for the first day. I thought I covered the 2 buckets but they were open.

This isnt much of a problem at all though, my climate is usually so well suited for fermenting, Ive been able to ferment before with exposed lids. But this was the first time in months that I actually didnt cover it off the bat. Do you think this is probably the reason for my infection on this batch?