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.