"I have been doing fermentations for years as a homebrewer, but have only been fermenting 'on the grain' with corn mashes just a few times. My current mash has developed a deep red color in particles floating on top. The ONLY things in the mash are, cracked corn from the feed store, 2 cups of instant oatmeal, white sugar, yeast and water. The red color is coming from particles floating on top. Could this be some pieces of ground up corn cob that was in the cracked corn? I am at a loss to figure out any other explanation.

Here is a picture:

Thanks.... Rex"

It is not a cooked mash. It is the second ferment on the UJSM method. The mash is covered, with an air lock and is inside at room temp. The red is more of a 'particulate' than anything slimy like a mold might be. I am beginning to think it is ground corn cob that was in the cracked corn. It was not evident in the first ferment, but showed up in the second ferment after the gallon of wash from the distillation was put back into it.

If it smells allright, i wouldn't worry about it. Think i would sieve it off though. Does look like cob floating.

Hi, all! Long time lurker, first time poster...

I am having the exact problem as the OP, and this is the ONLY thread anywhere that comes up on a google search of "corn mash red" (and various similar searches). My mash looks just like the pic, except more foamy. And I reeeaaaally don't know what's going on.

I'm really new at fermenting, and am actually making a corn mash for 'shine. I've made several corn mashes, but have always used either flaked maize, or corn meal. This is my first using cracked corn, and the only one ever to have red particles in it! I was amazed to see it when I checked it last night, 48 hours into the ferment.

THE BASICS: I sanitized everything with Iostar before use. My recipe the same as the OP's, minus the oatmeal. It is not cooked, but I did warm the water to 100*F before adding the sugar and corn, to better dissolve the sugar, and pitched yeast (reg bread yeast) at 90*. I've kept the carboys (sealed with air locks) on my dining table, and they are currently at 74*. They still have a 1/2" foam cap on top, and are bubbling once every two seconds. They both smell sweet, like rising bread dough. No off odors.

The ONLY difference between now and all other ferments is the bits of red. The red stuff floating on top in the foam head appears to be bits of cob, but on the bottom, it looks like deep red stains on the bits of kernel, not at all like cob. The vast majority of all the kernels are all yellow, but some are partially deep red stained. The mash is not slimy, and this red doesn't look like mold in any way (to me, anyhow).

I am really needing to post a pic of the bottom grains for you...and I hope I can with my iPad....lol...I will work on that. Until then, if anyone knows anything that might pertain to this, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Pam

I had a batch of cracked corn I cooked. because of time retraints, I couldn't get back to it until 3 days after cooking it. I opened up the container and just about fell on my butt. the smell was horendus and the corn had turned to a red/pink color. I poured it out into the garden. the top portion was real gooey almost like a watered down gum. The bottom portion of the container still had the yellow corn and looked normal. I don't know if was because it was too hot out in the shed for too long or what. The corn came from the same bag I had used before. The birds didn't even touch it. Yesterday I cooked the last 8# from the same bag, got it strained off right away. Pitched the yeast this morning so shall see what happens with this batch.