Giving Gose a go, Lacto starter help needed.

So for something completely different, I was going to try my hand at a gose.

I've got a recipe, but I wanted to confirm the steps for making and pitching a homemade lacto starter.

1. Three days or so before mashing, make a 1L starter, cool to 100F and throw a handful of grain in it. Try to keep it around 100 for a few days while the lactobacillus takes over - should smell like tart green apples (puke or rot means lacto didnt win.)

2. Mash the grain for your brew, run it out into a cooler, and let it cool to 100-120. Strain your lacto starter to keep the grain out of your wort, pour it in and let it do its thing for about 24 hours to get its tang on.

3. Take the soured wort and then boil it to kill off the lacto and do the normal brewing thing. Pitch a conventional yeast to finish off the fermentation.

Is that pretty much the program? I don't want to end up with a carboy full of hanta virus or something.

Any tips/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

A different option is to mash, split runnings in half (same gravity), boil half with all your hops and pitch yeast when cool. Throw a handful of grain in the other half. This lets the yeast work on one half without the lactic acid (hard on yeast). You might want to let the sour half go longer, since it's only half getting soured before a boil and mixing for the rest of fermentation. I'm trying my first sour beer this way.

Stopped by the LHBS today and one of the guys there recommended an acid rest. Basically mash in between 95-113F and let it sit for 24 hours or so, and then proceed with the mash as normal - in my case, raise the temp to 148 and give it 90 minutes or so. Then run off and proceed as normal. I think I'm going to give that a try since it seems less fussy than making an extra starter, etc.

I'm not sure mashing at 95-113 will result in very many fermentable sugars for your lacto to eat. You don't really need a starter though; a cup or so of uncrushed base malt will sour your beer just fine. You can add it at the same time as your yeast; or give it a head start to let it get more sour; or sour mash, then boil and add yeast. I've heard the concerns about the acidity bothering the yeast, and while I can't outright refute them, I can point out that apple and grape juice have pH levels around 3-3.5, and yeast ferment those just fine.

Well it seems like I have a lot of options. The reason why I thought the prolonged acid rest would work was because once I left a batch of grain in my cooler mash tun for over a day, and when I opened it up it had that wicked tang.

The difference is I had actually mashed the grain already, so it definitely had plenty of sugar to feast on...

Kingwood-kid, have you ever done either of those methods personally? The handful of grain into the fermenter seems like the simplest option. So perhaps a good variation of my first plan would be:

1. Brew the beer as normal.

2. Chill the wort to 110, put it in the fermenter and throw in a handful of grain.

3. When the fermenter has cooled to pitching temp, pitch the yeast.

That plan leaves live lactobacillus in the beer, but I guess that isnt really a problem.

I've never sour mashed. I have done it basically the way you wrote it in your last post, although I waited a few days before adding yeast. I've used both raw grain and Acidophilus pills from the vitamin aisle. Grain was much more potent. If you want, you can sour to your desired level, then kill the lacto by heating to 160 (or boiling, if that makes you feel better) before cooling and adding yeast. The only problem with live lacto in the beer is that it serves as a nucleation point for CO2. It's pretty cool to watch if you use clear bottles; there's sort of a "gathering storm" of carbonation at the bottom a few seconds after you pop the cap. You've got about 5 seconds before pouring into a glass is a really good idea.

Acidophilus is the wrong lacto strain. You need delbruckii or brevis.

Well I don't think I'm using the pills. Whatever is dwelling on the grain is going to be the winner. Brew. cool to 110. Handful of grain. Wait 2 days then pitch yeast.

I know this isn't the correct way to make a Gose, but I used acidulated malt the last 15 minutes of the mash and it turned out great. It reduced the workload a great deal. I believe I got it out of a BYO recipe a year or so ago.