Silo fermented corn

[zombie]

I was just reading the Plum ferment thread, and it reminded me of something from 40 years ago.

I worked on a dairy farm on Long Island. They grew corn as feed for the cows, and every fall we had to climb into the storage silos, and dig out the rotten (fermenting) corn at the base. I now know the corn was heating thru decomposition, and that action was converting the starch to sugar. Leaves, stalks, husks, and ears. The hole darn plant.
Well you could smell the alcohol from the entrance of the farm. The fella that owned the place took out 4/ 55 gallon drums from the base, and ran that thru a grape press. Got about two milk cans full of juice, and stilled that off. My buddy (owners son) and I got drunk for a full week of of that.

Thinking back it was like buttered popcorn in a jar.

Got me thinking about chopping/boiling/mashing the entire plant instead of just the kernels. I have never tasted anything even close to that.

[mymumsaidimcool]

buttered popcorn sounds amazing... Drinkable Popcorn..... Nom Nom Nom!!!!! :D :handgestures-thumbupleft:

anything else go with it and how long was it all left in there for? 6 months?

[zombie]

You know how a scent triggers memories? This one is backwards... I can smell/taste that hootch just thinking about it.

The silos were scraped once a year so it was a full year on the bottom. The auger stopped about 3-4 feet off of that I couldn't really guess how long the process took to begin but I can tell you it was still recognizable as chopped corn, and although it was sort of mushy, and black in color it was still in whole pieces. Not really rotten as it were.
Of course the very bottom is where all the good juicy stuff was.
Ross added nothing to it at all. Simply squeezed the juice from the dunage, and poured that straight into a wood fired still. Four bottles of that was our "pay" for cleaning the silo.

I am gonna give this a go this summer. Try to replicate the flavor by mashing/fermenting entire plants.

[MacStill]

I'd be slowing down and doing a little research before distilling fermented plant matter, let alone suggesting it on here ;-)

I'm not going to even begin explaining why.

[zombie]

I'd be slowing down and doing a little research before distilling fermented plant matter, let alone suggesting it on here ;-)

I'm not going to even begin explaining why.

I'll check that out. Thanks.
You can delete the post.

[MacStill]

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You can delete the post.

I can hey, thanks for your permission :roll: