Sulfur smell in (nearly) all corn mash

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grumbles
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2025 11:08 am

Sulfur smell in (nearly) all corn mash

Post by grumbles »

I started my first batch of corn liquor, and I've been smelling sulfurous gas coming off the ferment. The first time it happened, I walked out to the garage on day 2 or 3 and just got punched in the face by sulfur smell. I did some reading and found that corn just isn't a complete meal for the yeast, so I stirred in some DAP and yeast nutrient, and everything was clear the next day. Sadly, I didn't measure the amounts. I distilled it through this rig with the column packed with copper scrubbies, and the low wines smelled and tasted good. Well, the low wines tasted bad, but in a good way. You know what I mean.

I started another round this weekend, and I'm still detecting a faint sulfur smell even though I added DAP and nutrients from the beginning. I followed the amounts on the packages (roughly), and I'm wondering if
A) I didn't add enough
B) A little sulfur is normal
C) I used the British spelling sulphur when searching last time and missed out on 80% of the information... :think:

Here's the recipe:

11.5 lb cracked corn, ground to course meal
0.5 lb toasted oats, ground with the corn
5.25 gal water, added to corn at a rolling boil
high temp liquid enzyme at the beginning
insulated and stirred occasionally for 2 hours before allowing to cool to mashing temp
alpha and glucoamylase added at the usual temps
held at 145 F for about an hour
cooled naturally overnight
OG 1.066 with full conversion.

3.5 grams DAP
3 teaspoons Fermax yeast nutrient

Aerated with a drill for as long as it takes me to get bored. Say, 90-120 seconds.
Red Star baker's yeast sprinkled over the top.
Temps are holding around 74 F on PID controllers.

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