I just started a batch of Milo yesterday in two 5 gallon buckets and was wondering how long it would remain affective. If it will keep for half a year or so I'd like to make a batch in a 55 Gal drum so that I will always have some ripe stinky chum available for whenever the cat fishing bug hits.

I've been wondering this also.

it will still works as long as the smell is there & thats a long time ... i have used it close to a year later ... just have to keep addin a lil water as it evaporates out

Like Albert says.....just add a little water for evaporation and more grain as you use it up.

I have had a batch that went for 9 years, continually adding. Would have went longer but the barrel bottom rotted out.

Some of the "sweetest" chum I ever had was in that ninth year.

It brings tears to my eyes, just thinking about it.

But I can't reminisce, I have a new barrel that's going on 5 years!

How sweet it is!!

Chuckwagon

Thanks for the feedback guys. I can't imagine the stench that emanates from chum that has seen 9 Texas summers.

Well I think that I have all of the supplies needed to get this project started, I just have to figure out where in the world I am going to set it up. I don't think that the neighbors would be too keen on my little science project in mid July when the aroma will have everyone in a 6 block radius hunkered down in their houses 24/7 franticly trying to escape the fumes

Maybe I can set it up where I store my boat in the back of a self storage facility. Where do you guys do your brewing?

back yard

Back yard also. The odor stays pretty contained with lids on the bucket.

Back of the trailer lot....or better yet, an untenable trailer space near your own.

Gotta love it!

what kind of "secret" ingriedients do ya'll add in with the milo?

nuttin' unless i'm in a hurry for it to sour then i add a bottle of beer ... beer seems to hurry the process

I used to keep one of those 55 gallon plastic barrels started with five sacks of hen scratch and just like some mentioned, simply keep adding a sack and some water as you go. I didn't go ten years, mine only lasted about three years until I actually set the pasture on fire and burned that barrel up(man did the firemen cuss me. )

I kept one of those plastic barrel lids like they use on deer feeders on it and there was zero odor except during the periods when you are ladeling it out.

I always wished I could devise a better way of ladeling the stuff out into my 5 gallon buckets to go fishing. Maybe some kind of auger system. But, I never got around to it. Just used a feed scoop.

BTW: If you only used two 5 gallon buckets to sour a 50# sack of grain....You are likely going to experience a smelly explosion, or an overflow at the minimum. It takes three buckets to ripen a 50# sack safely.

Smokingun, you really don't need to add anything.
If you want to speed up the process, add some beer or active dry yeast, the kind used to make bread.
I would be bothered if I poured a perfectly good beer onto milo, besides, yeast is cheaper.
A couple of good hot days in the sun will get it going real soon.