Wort souring...

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bwarbiany
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Wort souring...

Post by bwarbiany »

So I'm making another batch of Gose. Past batches have relied on acid malt to sour the beer, but I want to go more "traditional".

So what I've planned on doing is performing a standard mash, collecting my preboil runnings, pitching a 1.5L starter of lacto, and trying to hold it in the 105-115 degree range for 30-36 hours. Then, start the boil and ferment as usual.

Anything special I need to do with the lacto?
Brad
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Greywolf
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by Greywolf »

I have not done it yet, but have you thought about sour mashing?
same treatment as you stated, you just won't need the starter.
GreyWolf27
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bwarbiany
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by bwarbiany »

Greywolf wrote:I have not done it yet, but have you thought about sour mashing?
same treatment as you stated, you just won't need the starter.
I have thought about it. And I know that you can sour mash with just a handful of grain or you can sour mash with a pure lacto culture like I've got from White Labs.

I think the advantage of a sour mash (using grain) is that you'll get more complex character out of it, as you have more than just lacto that gets pitched. The disadvantage of a sour mash is that you have more than just lacto that gets pitched, and you may not be very sure exactly what's going into it -- you could end up with something foul.

Given that this is my first attempt at a deliberate sour, I chose a pure lacto culture so that I'll have a more controlled experiment and see how it turns out. I might go for a sour mash in future brews though.
Brad
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ocluke
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by ocluke »

bwarbiany wrote:
Greywolf wrote:I have not done it yet, but have you thought about sour mashing?
same treatment as you stated, you just won't need the starter.
I have thought about it. And I know that you can sour mash with just a handful of grain or you can sour mash with a pure lacto culture like I've got from White Labs.

I think the advantage of a sour mash (using grain) is that you'll get more complex character out of it, as you have more than just lacto that gets pitched. The disadvantage of a sour mash is that you have more than just lacto that gets pitched, and you may not be very sure exactly what's going into it -- you could end up with something foul.

Given that this is my first attempt at a deliberate sour, I chose a pure lacto culture so that I'll have a more controlled experiment and see how it turns out. I might go for a sour mash in future brews though.
How did it turn out? We brewed on the same weekend. I'm very happy with how my sour mash on my Berliner Weisse turned out. It'll be kegged by next weekend.
Luke

MetaBrewing - A homebrewing blog documenting experiments with equipment, processes, recipes, hops, wild yeast, and whatever else happens to sneak its way in.
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bwarbiany
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by bwarbiany »

ocluke wrote:How did it turn out? We brewed on the same weekend. I'm very happy with how my sour mash on my Berliner Weisse turned out. It'll be kegged by next weekend.
I think you maybe saw my other thread... I think the lacto (or something else) fermented out the Gose before I even boiled, but then I boiled, adding some sugar and DME so the yeast would have something to ferment, and pitched US-05.

As soon as my order of cornies arrives (or one more goes empty), I'll keg it and see what I've got. We shall see...
Brad
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ocluke
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by ocluke »

My sour mashing procedure is currently as follows:

1. Reduce the mash pH to 4.2 (which can be achieved by substituting 10% of the grain bill with acid malt). I typically add the acid malt the last 15 minutes of the mash to allow for conversion of the other grains in a 5.2 environment. Reducing the mash pH to 4.2 will create an environment where most of the unwanted spoiling organisms cannot thrive, while lacto does great in that environment.

2. Bring the mash down to ~100-105, then inoculate with lacto. I pitch a bunch of unmilled acid malt (1 lb in a 12 gallon batch) to inoculate traditionally, but a lacto starter would do just as well, I would imagine.

3. Purge the head of the mash tun with CO2 (again, working towards an environment where only lacto will thrive) and cover tightly. Some people put plastic wrap on top; I just put my lid on top with a weight on top of that. I like the plastic wrap idea.

4. Maintain ~100 degrees until sour. You'll need some sort of temperature controlled way to achieve that. I use a ceramic heat bulb in my fermentation chamber (display fridge).

5. Check every 8-12 hours (after the first 24 hours) to see if the sour profile is to your liking. Always purge the head space with CO2 after taking a sample.

6. Once the desired sour profile is achieved, mash out, sparge, and follow whatever method you want (no boil, short boil, 90 minute boil), chill, and pitch a sac yeast of your liking to ferment out the wort.
Luke

MetaBrewing - A homebrewing blog documenting experiments with equipment, processes, recipes, hops, wild yeast, and whatever else happens to sneak its way in.
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bwarbiany
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Re: Wort souring...

Post by bwarbiany »

Thanks. I want to get a couple more brews out of the way first, but I'm either going to do another gose or do a berliner weisse sometime later this summer and do a proper sour mash rather than my method of souring the post-sparge wort.
Brad
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