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Hi guys. I'll give a quick rundown of my process & then you guys can tell me where I goofed.

1. Heated water ~15 gal. to 207F & shut off heat.
2. Added 15 lbs cracked / milled corn
3. At 147F added 6 lbs malted rye & 3 lbs 6 row malted barley.
4 at 100F dumped it in a 32 gallon fermenter & covered it up. (Evening) S.G. 1.042
5 next morning it was cool 72 & had a sour smell.
I added yeast & it's doing fine. About 1.01 today.
Thanks.

Probably it got infected over night. The infection started, when you poured it into the fermenter probably. I had this too. It's no problem. Your yeast will always win the fight.

It's a low SG. But you didn't use much grain. With FG 1.000 you will et 5.5%. Not much for a Bourbon mash.

I was thinking about adding some sugar.

Ryewhiskey1995 wrote:I was thinking about adding some sugar.

Naw....don't. Let this one go...strip it.

And start a new ferment with 20% more malted grains. When its done, strip it and do it again. After collecting the low wines from these 3 ferments, THEN do a nice and easy spirit run. You will be glad you did.

OK...so more work and longer wait for product. But the product will be 10x better. You'll be glad you did this rather than putting sugar into the ferment simply to raise the potential. Trust me on this one...patience and dilligence will be rewarded 10 fold.
ss

Should I ferment the next batch on top of the grains of this one?

Ryewhiskey1995 wrote:Should I ferment the next batch on top of the grains of this one?

I wouldn't. But then again, I lauter my mashes (never ferment on the grain). So the decision is yours...but I don't like the regeneration of trub...I prefer the flavor of fresh malt grains.
YMMV.

But, if you do put the new ferment on top of the dregs, be sure to check and adjust the pH. It is quite likely low (acidic) and if too low will inhibit the propagation of fresh yeast. You probably don't need more than 1/3 to 1/4 of the dregs to reuse anyway.

Unless you've done it before, it could be risky to your 2nd generation.
ss

I've dumped a straight corn batch on top of a straight rye batch & it turned out great. But I appreciate you're knowledge & advice!
I'll check the ph & keep reading. It'll be a couple days until it's done.

Check the recipe under "tried and true" section for wheated bourbon and gumballhead. You reuse the spent grain to flavor a sugar wash second batch. I'm fermenting the sugar wash right now. It smells so good I almost want to bottle with priming sugar like beer, but it's probably very sour.

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