Sweet smelling fermented feed normal?

[NikAndHerChicks]

During our forever cold snap, I stopped fermenting. I restarted my ferment last week, when the weather warmed up. I started my bucket in the house, and added the rinse water from my barley sprouts. That stuff took off and was tangy, and burping away in the corner within 12 hours!

Wow! That's great!! I wonder if it's because of the extra yeast in the water from the barley?

 

[lazy gardener]

I've found that any whole grain speeds the fermentation process. I think most grains have plenty of bacteria and fungi attached to them. While it takes longer for whole grains to ferment, and ideally, they should be cracked, they bring plenty of microbes to the ferment to kick start it. So, a hand full of scratch will do wonders to get a ferment going.

 

[NikAndHerChicks]

I've found that any whole grain speeds the fermentation process. I think most grains have plenty of bacteria and fungi attached to them. While it takes longer for whole grains to ferment, and ideally, they should be cracked, they bring plenty of microbes to the ferment to kick start it. So, a hand full of scratch will do wonders to get a ferment going.

Also most scratch has corn in it which has a high sugar content... plenty of sugar for those wild yeast strains to munch on!