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I will be boiling corn cobs and I was thinking about reusing this water to make a brew batch. I know some commercial breweries use corn as an ingredient, but I am unsure how.

I am thinking that a light blonde beer would work well, like a Corona. It could be an all-grain batch, where I would use the water to mash my grain... Or it could be an extract batch, where I would used this "tinted" water in the mix...

Has anyone done this?
Besides flavour, would it add some corn sugar as well?
Any recipe suggestions?

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    I just found this post that mentions that I need to mash it with grains to convert starches homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/7912/…
    – Philippe
    Commented Jun 16, 2017 at 20:28
  • Boiled corn / boiled vegetable is an off-flavor.
    – Robert
    Commented Jun 16, 2017 at 21:24
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    What is the motivation for this? Are you in an extreme drought and need to save water?
    – Robert
    Commented Jun 16, 2017 at 21:25
  • No, not really something I "have" to do, I just though of it as an experiment. Some breweries use some % of corn instead of malt, just wanted to try it out.
    – Philippe
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:49
  • As @Robert mentioned the corn like flavor is considered an off-flavor (DMS). No saying that your beer will have DMS, but you other people may perceive it as DMS. Worth mention that corn syrup production is way more complex than just boiling the corn.
    – rondonctba
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:03

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I wouldn't advise. Idk if the husk has tannins but I assume it does, because "corn hair" does.

In any case boiling will extract tannins if the water isn't treated to be blow 6.0 pH.

I'm sure if you still wanted to try it, you could taste the water before hand to see if it has the astringent properties of tannins.

Best to just add some flaked maize to the mash.

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  • I used the wrong word initially, corn cobs not husks, sorry I got the wrong translation...
    – Philippe
    Commented Jun 16, 2017 at 20:26
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    @Philippe raw corn needs to have a cereal mash. So boiled, then smashed to make the starches available to enzymes in the mash.
    – Evil Zymurgist
    Commented Jun 16, 2017 at 20:29
  • So if I use this water to mash my malt, it could work. I wonder how much sugar will it add ?
    – Philippe
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:54
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    @Philippe None unless the corn kernels are broken and cooked allowing starches to get in the water.
    – Evil Zymurgist
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:57

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