Beer Forum

Had an idea for souring wort using one of those collapsible plastic cubitainers. Top it off, toss some grain into it, push any air out and seal it up. Could put a 1 gal one in a pot (in case it leaks) and stick it in the oven over night (our pilot light keeps it at 101 F). On brew day, pull it out, open the spigot and run off into the kettle then bring to a boil and go from there. Has anyone tried something similar?

The benefits as I see it would be that you can close it up with zero headspace, keep air out, and keep the smell in. Is there anything I'm not thinking of? I've not done sours before, so am looking to get started by adding some sour wort to the rest of the beer, rather than doing bugs in the fermentor.

I don't see why that wouldn't work. I've done something sort of like this. When I pitched my sac strain i also added about 50 kernels of pilsner malt. And have let it sit. A friend of mine has done this a few times and so far the 2 that i've had produced super sour, super clean lacto sour beer. Every time I make a sour now I do 10 gallons and do this with 5 and the other 5 with some sort of commercial pitch like ECY.

This is a bit of a tangent, and I apologize, but if you're just trying to avoid bugs in your fermenters, you might give this a try:
http://www.notsoprofessionalbeer.com/20 ... ogurt.html

I just brewed a Berliner Weisse using yogurt in the kettle for the lacto, and it worked very well. As long as you can keep the kettle (or other container) at the recommended temperature, the lacto in the yogurt does it's job. I tested the final beer with a pH meter yesterday, and it's definitely quite acidic. I don't know if I'd call it "sour," but it's definitely quite tart, as a Berliner Weisse should be.

Using the yogurt rather than the grain helps to make sure you avoid spoiling organisms you might get from the grain. It might not be quite as complex (no Brett), but you get several varieties of lacto.

Never tried a sour mash before, but this sounds like a great idea. It keeps the oxygen out and you dont have to worry cleaning out the nasty mash tun afterwards.

Do you think you would heat up the wort close to 200 to kill everything and then add back new grain (or yogurt)? or just run out of the mash to the cubitainer and let it sit about 100 - 110?

Open to suggestions... my idea to try using it was that it would give an easy way to keep oxygen out and be self contained for ease of use, but I've not done sour mash or wort before, so not sure whether it is better to boil (would drive out O2 and coaggulate proteins), or just go from the mash.

When I did it, I took the wort up to 200F (about) and then let it cool overnight to about 125F. I then pitched the yogurt and tried to hold it as close to 125F as possible. I figured it was sort of like pasteurizing it. Not sure if it was needed. The brewery in the link I included earlier doesn't sound like they do it. I was just a bit paranoid about other stuff taking hold before the yogurt could. I've heard there are also flavor differences between boiled and non-boiled Berliners. Both ways have made good beer, but non-boiled is supposed to be a bit more grainy.

I did do a 30 minute boil, after letting the lacto go in the kettle for 3 days, mostly to hit my volumes. That was the benefit, to me anyway, of doing it in the kettle vs. something else. Less to clean too.

Well, I'd been planning to boil after it has soured sufficiently, but was thinking to not boil before it goes in the cube (less cleanup on mash day).

spiderwrangler wrote:Well, I'd been planning to boil after it has soured sufficiently, but was thinking to not boil before it goes in the cube (less cleanup on mash day).

Thats what I would do. Sounds easier to me. I did do a berliner that was no boil once, but I did bring it up to 210 and let it stand for about 15 minutes, before I pitched my yeast and bugs. Came out with a great grainy quality. Next time I think Ill try the cubtainer idea. I think I shall do this in the spring for a nice summer beer.