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I bought 60 ears of fresh bi-color ohio sweet corn for $20. So I shucked and cut the corn off of 48 ears of corn, rest got saved for dinner. I used a food processor to blend the corn up, no added water (liquefied well without any water). Took the corn cobs and boiled them for an hour and used that water to mix with the corn. Put everything in an 8 gallon pot, cooked the corn with the corn water plus added water to get 4 gallons total. Once I reached temperature I shut off the burner and proceeded to let it cool down. Pitched alpha amylase at temp., stirred and kept at 140 F for 3 hours. Put 2 gallons of cool water, aerated and pitched DADY at 95 F. Mixed in 6 lbs. cane sugar and put everything in a barrel. Sealed lid , put S style airlock in and insulated for higher fermentation temperature.

So after 48 hours it stopped bubbling, has a thick cap, but tastes super sour... no sweetness left.

1. Is that normal to finish so quick?
2. I didn't expect it to finish so fast (never
done a corn shine), will it be ok to sit for a
week?
3. Any advice for future runs?

You used amalayze. Did you also use gluco to convert the dextfins to sugar?
Sour means no dugar left. What's you sg?

It isn't 'normal' to do what you did, so I'm waiting to hear the results.

My one and only fresh corn experiment tasted a bit too much like fresh corn and I didn't like it as 'new make'. It was so bad that I haven't tried putting it on oak.

The variety will make a difference, so hopefully you will get a better result than I did.

the bubbling for 48 hrs was probably only the yeast feasting on the cane sugar.
the corn slurry you treated with alpha amylase will produce mainly unfermentable sugars unless you also use gluco.
i would be doing one of two things.
1) buy some glucoamylase, bring the whole lot up to gluco temp and let the gluco do it's job, then add fresh yeast.
2) buy some yellow label yeast, add that to the ferment and let it do its job.
in the meantime, depending on the cap, until you you treat it, maybe i would be pushing that cap down gently to try and negate any infection starting while keeping the protective layer of CO2 in place (or maybe not even disturb/stir it )
it's probably best to get something done pretty quickly.

If you punch the cap down and it rises again then it's still fermenting.

EricTheRed wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 9:25 pm You used amalayze. Did you also use gluco to convert the dextfins to sugar?
Sour means no dugar left. What's you sg?

No I didn't have any gluco, but I'll get some for next time. I didn't get an SG it was to thick on top and as a noob I didn't think to use a turkey baster to pull the liquid out.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 12:05 am If you punch the cap down and it rises again then it's still fermenting.

I'll try that thanks

D4M4G3D_G00D5 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 8:21 pm
3. Any advice for future runs?

Great idea to attempt salvaging some starch from the corn cobs. It was news to learn cobs contain usable starch.

A quick bit of research reveals that corn cobs can indeed contain up to 27% starch. Researching the viability of recovering starch (for plasticizers) from cobs was funded by the plastics industry. However, even as this starch is safely edible, to extract it requires drying the cobs at 185-203F (much like standard mash temps), milling fine, then mashing in hot water (again at 85-95C/185-203F).

Given your process I suspect you extracted negligible amounts of fermentable starch although the thought was there.

It is difficult to say what benefits you gained from 'mashing' the corn and cobs. The mash process typically refers to grain and facilitates 'opening up' of the starch granules for access by enzymes to convert. Sweet corn (bred for flavor) contains sugar, but roughly 18% starch versus a dent corn which can contain 80% starch (dry weight).

I concur with howie, you basically made a corn-flavored sugar wash. However, if you are keen to repeat your process with the sweet corn and can steep, dry, mill and mash the cob meal, the starch extraction results would be most interesting indeed.