Corn Cob Wine

My grandmother taught me to make corn cob jelly years ago. I have made it every year since then even in the military she would always send me a jar over seas where I was stationed. But I have been wondering has anyone made wine out of corn cob. It seems like it would be plausible to do so especially using sweet corn. I read the jack keller page in it and he says to use cracked corn. But I'm not going to waste good corn on this but I will use the cob though. So if anyone out there has made it please let me know the results or send recipe would be nice also.

I don't think there is much sugar left in the cob.

There are many jelly or jam wine recipes out there. If you like the taste of the corn cob jelly then there is no reason it can't make a decent wine. Check out jelly recipes and just use your corn cob jelly instead.

Keller has a recipe that used the cob as well as the corn but I don't think the cob would have enough sugar or add enough body to the wine by itself. If I were going to do a corn cob wine without the corn I would also use golden raisins.

That's what I was thinking is using raisins with it. I thought about using the jelly recipe and leaving the or pectin jell out of it. maybe honey would go good in it. Make it more of a mead base drink than sugar.

Homegrown fresh sweet corn has a lot of sugar in the cob if picked young

That's what I have is whole bunch of home grown sweet corn.

I got a bunch if Silver Queen sweet corn too....if there is a recipe id like to see it/try it

how do you think moonshine is made?

I was looking around the interwebs and it seems that corn cob wine is not really that unheard of. It looks like these wines just need some raisins & acid blend along with the normal amounts of sugar yeast nutrients and wine yeast.

I am starting to be pretty interested in the stuff and may throw a batch together. I have some Karo light corn syrup in the cabinet and it is made with corn syrup, salt and vanilla. So vanilla might be a complimenting flavor with this. What all do you think of this plan:

1 gallon recipe

2lb whole ears of corn
Karo corn syrup to a gravity of 1.072
2 tsp acid blend
1 tea bag of hibiscus tea blend
4 oz raisins
1 vanilla pod
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Water to 1 gallon
Yeast

First I will chop up corn into smaller pieces and freeze them. Then I will boil the corn for 30 minutes. Let it cool and then cut off the corn while saving the water. I'll save the actual corn for cooking later. Split the cob into some smaller bits and boil again for another 30 min. Next ill transfer the cob and water into the primary and mix in all the ingredients. The vanilla pod will be split, seeds scraped into primary and toss the whole pod in. Once the temp is right ill pitch rehydrated yeast. Let this ferment dry then transfer to secondary. I'll try and clear with bentonite. Once clear I want to try and rack, back sweeten, bottle and after it carbonates a little then pasteurize the bottles to kill the yeast.

Crazy? Or no? Do you think pectic enzyme would be needed? Some recipes across the interwebs had pectic enzyme and others did not.

You will need pectic enzyme too, for sure since you are boiling the cobs and potentially setting pectins. You could hold back on it at the beginning but your wine may not clear and you may need to add it later for clearing. I'd just add it at the start.

Well I just don't know a lot about corn in general and just didn't know if it actually does have pectin. So yea ill add in a tsp once the must cools and give it a 12 hour rest and then pitch the yeast.

What yeast do you plan on using. This is going to be scary if it actually turns out really good lol.

That is the hard bit right now. I don't plan on going into town to get yeast any time soon. All I have on hand is fleishmans bread yeast. Some rc212 I am saving for a raspberry melomel & I have some sake lees I started with lalvin 1116.

So I thought I might try and cultivate some 1116 yeast and try and clean up that sake taste because I am not sure if I want to have that translate into the cob wine. I started two large tbs of the sake lees in a tsp of honey, a pinch of nutrient and water in a caning jar. After 24 hours I saw that the yeast was indeed active so I dumped that into a half gallon of Welche's white grape juice. I added a pinch of acid blend, a couple pinches of nutrient and a tsp of amalyse enzyme to hopefully clean up the starches left over. Ill let that ferment and then cold crash. The lees should be Farley nutrial in flavor then and I can get this puppy started.

The 1116 yeast I have in the white grape juice is fermenting like a bat out if hell in there. So I can probably get to siphoning off the wine on top the yeast cake here in a couple to three weeks. Since that is a ways a way. Does anyone think that the fleishmans yeast i have would be terrible?

If I get a chance sooner to purchase some yeast I think I would go to my favorite catch all lalvin 71b. If it was winter or I had a temperature controlled cooler I think lalvin D47 fermenting at about 60*F would work well to keep a nice fruity aroma. What would be anyone else's thoughts on a yeast choice?

Sounds like a plan in action. I chopped some corn up today and got it in the freezer. Going to by some syrup after work tomorrow. See if I can get this think started. Need some yeast though all I have is lavin 1118. I defiantly don't want to use that in it.

I've always wondered if you could use the water from boiling corn on the cob for a large group of people. I've never checked the original gravity from a batch, but it's a nice yellow color and makes me wonder.

The great part about this it's cheap to make so far. Even though I'm going to
Use the corn from my garden. They have it at HEB 6 ears for a dollar.

Why not 1118?

Id use Pasteur champagne or D47 and I think you will probably find that this recipe will need back sweetened. good luck let us know how it turns out!!!

I don't know the vanilla sweet corn flavors may fare well dry. My starter wine to get the lees I want is already done fermenting. I have it in the fridge and already have about an inch of lees. Ill let it clear for a few more days and siphone off soon. Then I can start this.

I haven't had that much luck with 1118 not saying it's a bad yeast. I just think I'm cursed on that yeast honestly. Something always goes wrong with my wine when I use it. Got the vanilla bean and syrup after work today. I'm think of starting this weekend. If some one can tell me how to post pics on here I'll photo the whole process and put it up.

I guess I could see it being a low dry like 11-12%

Arpolis said:

1 gallon recipe

2lb whole ears of corn
Karo corn syrup to a gravity of 1.072
2 tsp acid blend
1 tea bag of hibiscus tea blend
4 oz raisins
1 vanilla pod
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Water to 1 gallon
Yeast

Click to expand...

Ok so I put the above recipe together. I racked a simple white grape wine off a yeast cake of K1v-1116 and pitched that into this. Wish me luck.

Good god an hour had not even passed and this stuff is fermenting furiously. That yeast cake got this off to a nice start. I did taste some of the hydrometer and it was very citrusy with a pleasant sour and a nutty taste on the back end as the corn flavor came to the forefront. Now to see how it is in a couple months after fermentation and clearing is done.

I'll be starting mine this evening. But with Red Star yeast instead. If anyone thinks using red star is a bad idea let me know. So I can run to the brew shop and pick something up before they close today.

Also when do you put the tea in after you get everything boiled or do you toss it in with the yeast? I've never used tea in a wine

Some like to make the tea like normal and use it as a replacement for the water in different ratios. I just dumped the dry tea in the primary. I have grown to so that often with meads and wines. It settles out with the yeast really well and just compact into the lees.

Jeremy_84 said:

I'll be starting mine this evening. But with Red Star yeast instead. If anyone thinks using red star is a bad idea let me know. So I can run to the brew shop and pick something up before they close today.

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When you say red star yeast... Which one? Cote de-blanc, Montrachet would be good or even Pasteur champagne.

It's Pasteur Red and I have Pasteur champagne. Any thoughts anyone on which one to use.

Jeremy_84 said:

It's Pasteur Red and I have Pasteur champagne. Any thoughts anyone on which one to use.

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Pasteur champagne is a nice neutral yeast that is good for delicate flavors. I think that one will do well. The Pasteur red may help to preserve and accentuate the flavor and aroma from the raisins used. So it may be slightly fruitier with the red. But then again this is all new territory for us. Who knows the outcome?

I might go with the champagne yeast. I could start another batch up and use the red. See which one comes out better to my tasting.

So I have the corn cobs now and just picking up the pieces for this. But I was wondering how yours is coming Jeremy? Tasted it yet? Would have changed anything?

I hate to say but my plans had to change due to a family emergency. I have not yet started it. I have everything ready to go. I will start it some times this week I hope.

Arpolis how's yours coming? Have you started racking yet?

Mine is coming along great! I need to rack it today. OMG there are so much lees. I was going to wait for the raisins to all drop but about half of them have dropped and you can see through the wine but it is still a milky yellow from suspended yeast. I have some of the must that went over the gallon saved so I will probably rack, top up with that must and any water if needed. After that it should only be another 60 days and probably one more racking and it should be clear. I gave it a taste and it is hard to pick out the delicate flavors past the yeast. Good thing is that compared to other yeasty wines I have tasted this one did not make me want to spit it out. I think this will be a nice crisp refreshing white wine.

I do think it may be a little on the sour side but that may be the yeast talking. From first impression I might cut the acid blend I added in half. But I will know better once it is clear.

Nice sounds promising so far from your end. I'm hoping to start mine this weekend. It's just been one thing after another on my end.

Arpolis, thanks for the update, I agree with Jeremy that it seems like it should be an interesting batch. I am thinking of using the recipe you described (minus the vanilla bean since the corn syrup that I got has vanilla added... although I do have some vanilla extract that might be really good... thoughts?), and probably decrease the amount of acid since you can always add more at the end if need be.

I was thinking that I might do a 3 gallon batch since that's the size carboy that I have. I currently have 3 lbs of corn cobs freezing, and about another 2lbs that I recently got from the farmers market and plan to deal with soon. I also picked up some of the Pasteur champagne yeast since I thought that the nutral flavor of the yeast might help let the corn come through a bit more. Not sure, this is only my third wine, but I'm hoping for the best.

I only added the vanilla because my corn syrup does have vanilla in it. I guessed the flavored should meld well but I wanted the vanilla a little more pronounced. Probably a tsp of vanilla extract would be good. I would say at least cut that acid blend amount in half and see how that is.

Good to know. I'll let you know how mine turns out when I get it together.
Cheers!