This past weekend I brewed a batch of Berliner Weiss and decided to try an experiment. After listening to the episode of Basic Brewing Radio with Michael Tonsmeire, I wanted to try his sour mashing method. So I used the following bill:
4 lb pale 2 row
2 lb white wheat
1/2 lb rice hulls
1 oz Perle, first wort
Dough in at 151*F. Allowed to naturally cool to 105*F. Added 1 lb pale malt, uncracked. Kept temperature between 90*F and 100*F to allow lacto formation. After 48 hours, mash was wonderfully sour. Batch sparked for 6 gallons of wort. Boiled for 15 minutes to pasteurize. Cooled to 75 degrees.
Here is where the problem comes in: I had an OG of 1.013! Is it possible that it soured too long and the black ate up all of the sugars or is there something else seriously wrong here? I used the same setting on my malt mill as always. I regularly hit 80% efficiency without trying. But with these numbers I hit around 20% on a drink that will come in at 1/2% abv. Any thoughts?
4 lb pale 2 row
2 lb white wheat
1/2 lb rice hulls
1 oz Perle, first wort
Dough in at 151*F. Allowed to naturally cool to 105*F. Added 1 lb pale malt, uncracked. Kept temperature between 90*F and 100*F to allow lacto formation. After 48 hours, mash was wonderfully sour. Batch sparked for 6 gallons of wort. Boiled for 15 minutes to pasteurize. Cooled to 75 degrees.
Here is where the problem comes in: I had an OG of 1.013! Is it possible that it soured too long and the black ate up all of the sugars or is there something else seriously wrong here? I used the same setting on my malt mill as always. I regularly hit 80% efficiency without trying. But with these numbers I hit around 20% on a drink that will come in at 1/2% abv. Any thoughts?