Patio29Dadio Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 We have about 100 gallons of low wines from a recent run that has a weird... almost foul... odor. Almost like a rodent died months ago... very subtle but off-putting. But then the next wiff smells like good corn-based low wines. We previously noticed a similar "dead rodent lite" smell around the grain super sacks. We could not find a source and getting closer to the sacks it would smell completely of grain and not of anything bad. But walking by a certain area of the storage area it would hit. We looked everywhere and could not find a thing. The ferment was weird... had some more yellow oily substance on the edges of the grist cap. The ferment got a bit hot... close to 100F. Forgot to put water in the fermenter tank jacket overnight the first night. Thinking about just tossing it, but also wondering if I am hyper-sensitive and almost imagining that we milled a dead rodent that was mixed in the grain sack. Or we had too hot of a ferment and produced some bad compounds. Also thinking about doing a finishing run to see if it clears up, but afraid of corrupting the still. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silk City Distillers Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Have you inspected the grain closely? Maybe some mold? What's the flavor of the low wines? If it's earthy, potato, mushroomy - that's indication of mold. Friend of ours showed us an easy way to test grain. Put it between two wet paper towels and microwave it until it's hot. Take a good smell. We got some grain from a local guy once that we suspect got rained on, we didn't use it for a few days, ran the test and it was very musty. Ended up having him take it all back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patio29Dadio Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 We inspected the top of the 2000+ lb supersack and of course paid attention to the milling process... but our process is a bit closed (for dust containment) and thus did not see what was in the middle and bottom. But this isn't musty... it is a subtle rancid smell. I have the grain supplier coming out and will let him get a wiff of those low wines and tell me what he thinks. I am really convinced that there was a very decomposed rodent in the middle of the grain that we missed. The hammer mill would have made it impossible to detect at the back end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silk City Distillers Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Too bad it wasn’t heavy rum, people pay extra for dead rodent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreshot Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Rat pechuga? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silk City Distillers Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Ok I was just joking around, but that’s just crazy. I use alcohol sometimes when cooking chicken, but not the other way around. I need to try this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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