Beer Forum

I have two questions:

Does anyone use the sour mash method - add a handful of grain after mashing, hold at 100*F for 1-3 days? How does it turn out for you? Hopefully I can get some in put from someone who's done this method more than once.

If you use this method, souring the mash before boiling, can use re-use your yeast? The boil will kill the lacto, right?

I just did this two weeks ago. I think it turned out pretty good. I was scared that it was going to get exponentially funky real quick - but it actually took almost 36 hours to get a decent level of sourness. I wrapped my MT in a sleeping bag, but the temp still dropped into the 90's by the time it was done. I suppose if you can maintain a steady 110 then it would happen faster.

Beer is now done with secondary fermentation (I pitched in a can of Oregon's Peach Puree). The sourness has held up and is complemented nicely with the peach flavor/aroma.

And yes, the 15 min boil should have killed the lacto, but I doubt I will reuse the yeast anyway.


Mylo

I have not done this method yet, but have tasted the results of it. Quite nice. The last berliner i made, i didn't boil it at all. Pitched lacto warm and let it rip for a few days and pitched 1056 to finish it out.

Came out nice. Not as sour as i'd like, but a berliner isn't puckering sour anyway.

Next time i'll do the sour mash. Please share your results and process when you do this.

Presumably there's usually enough lactobacillus on grain husks to get a mash sufficiently sour in 1-2 days at the right temp. But has anyone out there experimented with adding a pure lacto culture to a mash @ 100-110 degrees and then holding it for a day or so? I wonder if that'd intensify things or cut down on the time required to sour.

I've done a sour mash Kentucky Common style two different ways where I took 2lbs. of the grain bill and added 160F water about 3 days ahead of brewing. The first time I let it cool down to around 100F and then left it outside open to the air in the Summertime for about an hour, then closed it up (but left it outside for the warmth). It didn't do much for the first day, but then some wild yeast strain got going, and it also started souring. By brew day, it was mildly sour, and I added that 2 lbs. to the main mash at mash in... it gave a nice subtle tang to the beer. The second time, I added yogurt culture to the 2 lbs., and it soured significantly within a few hours, but had a much harsher flavor.