Long mash, sour mash

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
S

salzar

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
99
Reaction score
3
Location
Riverside Ca
Due to unplanned series of events, my 5gallon mash had to sit for 18hrs. I just returned to check on it. There is a clear layer of something on the top and it smells very sour.

Should I chuck the mash(10lb of grain). Or proceed with the brew.
 
I'd chuck it. Lots of wild stuff in malt (yeast, fungus, ...). That's why you don't usually brew where you crush your grain and boil as soon as you mash out.

Sorry,
P
 
LayMeister said:
I'd chuck it. Lots of wild stuff in malt (yeast, fungus, ...). That's why you don't usually brew where you crush your grain and boil as soon as you mash out.

Sorry,
P
Click to expand...

No way!

Well, what kind of beer is it? What you have is a lacto infection. It will sour the beer that you've made, but I do this intentionally from time to time and it can come out well. Just collect your wort and boil as normal. That will kill all the bugs in there and you'll come out with a sour beer.

No sense in giving it up now!
 
carnevoodoo said:
No way!

Well, what kind of beer is it? What you have is a lacto infection. It will sour the beer that you've made, but I do this intentionally from time to time and it can come out well. Just collect your wort and boil as normal. That will kill all the bugs in there and you'll come out with a sour beer.

No sense in giving it up now!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess I'd do this too, even though I don't like sour beer.

Maybe taste the mash and see. If it's pleasantly sour, boil it up (it won't get more sour, since you'd be killing the lacto beasties) and see what happens. If it's unpleasantly vinegar-y sour, dump it.
 
It was a belgium witt, my main cost is the whitelabs yeast I have set out for it. Guess I will mash out now and see what happens.
 
BigKahuna said:
Will it keep the sour flavor? I've been hoping to experiment with this some day.
Click to expand...

heck yeah. that's the point. A Berlinner Weiss is made with lactobacillus.

I say with a wit, this will go well. You'll end up with a tart beer. Give it time to age and see where it ends up. Sure, you're going to use 6 dollars of yeast, but it'll be a fun experiment for you.

Yooper... You don't want to go by mash taste. A lacto infection pre-boil will smell like feet and sweat socks. It is almost vomit-inducing, but they can come out pretty clean. Ideally, I'd like to use store bought lacto, but the naturally occurring one is fun too!
 
Does it have a nasty aroma? That will not go away with boiling. Not sure if I had same infection but I once mashed, then sparged but circumstances prevented me from boiling till next night. White foam had formed on the top of wort. It smelled of malty goodness when it first hit my nose, but then the acrid scent of vommit followed. I don't think mine was lactic. I boiled it for twenty minutes and the smell seemed to lessen as it heated, but I gave up and dumped after cooling. The smell came back strong again when cool. Tasted fine, but I knew I wouldn't drink anything that had a malty puke smell reaching my nose before I imbibe it. If you're brave, try it. If you mash, you at least have to sparge and keep wort above 160 for 15min to pasteurize, or something like that. I have several times mashed and sparged/pasteurized in the evening and boiled following morning. Not sure what the worst effects on the wort would be, aside from nasties, however I'm sure someone else knows.
 
left field brewer said:
Does it have a nasty aroma? That will not go away with boiling. Not sure if I had same infection but I once mashed, then sparged but circumstances prevented me from boiling till next night. White foam had formed on the top of wort. It smelled of malty goodness when it first hit my nose, but then the acrid scent of vommit followed. I don't think mine was lactic. I boiled it for twenty minutes and the smell seemed to lessen as it heated, but I gave up and dumped after cooling. The smell came back strong again when cool. Tasted fine, but I knew I wouldn't drink anything that had a malty puke smell reaching my nose before I imbibe it. If you're brave, try it. If you mash, you at least have to sparge and keep wort above 160 for 15min to pasteurize, or something like that. I have several times mashed and sparged/pasteurized in the evening and boiled following morning. Not sure what the worst effects on the wort would be, aside from nasties, however I'm sure someone else knows.
Click to expand...

This is how I've started my lacto infections. I sparge, add a bag full of grain to the wort at about 105 degrees, and then let it sit for two days. The stink is almost unbearable, but the end result can be great. CAN be. A lot of stuff I do is experimental and it doesn't always work out right, but this is one thing that I wouldn't throw away.
 
ugh bad brew day indeed. Propane died, moved kettle onto two burners of my stove. At first hop addition massive boil over even though I am using foam control drops. lost about 1-2 gallons and a gained a nice mess in my apt.Oh well got the chiller running in the kitchen.
 
carnevoodoo said:
I sparge, add a bag full of grain to the wort at about 105 degrees, and then let it sit for two days. The stink is almost unbearable, but the end result can be great. CAN be. A lot of stuff I do is experimental and it doesn't always work out right, but this is one thing that I wouldn't throw away.
Click to expand...
OK Dude...You want to do a bottle swap...I only need 1 and a recipe...I'll send you whatever I've got.
 
I've done this on a smaller scale based on the Flying Fish Summer Ale clone in BYO's 150 clone edition. Only added 3 oz of 2row to 150F water and let sit for four days. That was then added to the regular mash on brew day. The results were excellent.
 
Jamo99 said:
I've done this on a smaller scale based on the Flying Fish Summer Ale clone in BYO's 150 clone edition. Only added 3 oz of 2row to 150F water and let sit for four days. That was then added to the regular mash on brew day. The results were excellent.
Click to expand...

I've done the same thing twice, the second time with a gallon of sour mash with 1 lb. of grain. Came out awesome.
 
salzar said:
It was a belgium witt, my main cost is the whitelabs yeast I have set out for it. Guess I will mash out now and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Ahh ok. Well if it is any consolation, I do this on purpose with my Wit. You'll probably find it far too sour for a Wit @ 18 hrs. I am still working on getting the time frame perfected. I have done the added sour mash before, but the method I now take is after the sparge I hold the mash covered and warm for the proper amount of time (proper is in the experimental phase now).
 
I brewed up a Fresh hop IPA two days ago and it was late and we had company so I didn't clean out the mash tun until yesterday. I used a bunch of extra water to adjust for how much the hops would hold onto. Even so, I left maybe 3/4 of a gal. of liquid in the tun. It had started a very nice fermentation when I got to it last night. It didn't smell bad at all. It seems to me this might be a safe way to sour a beer. I could have boiled up the soured leftovers and added it to the fermenter (if it weren't an IPA I'd have been tempted). One could even pull a sample of the regular wort and do some taste testing to decide just how much to mix in.
 
Hi , I dont mean to hijack this tread, But I have a similar situation .
I Mashed 9Lb of grain for a stout, But was not able to brew for certain reasons.
I stored the 3gallons of wort in a cornny i had empty, & its been three weeks now. smells to hell.
I've done a sour mash before, but only for 7 days, but three weeks?

Dose anyone think it's too late, or should I proceed with my plan?
So, my plan is to mash another 8lbs
then siphon the sourmash to my kettle, mix the two mashes and boil for a ten gallon batch.
Help Me
 

Similar threads

F
mashing a small amount of grain in a large amount of water.
Replies
8
Views
963
fluketamer
F
B
Very High Post Boil pH
2
Replies
48
Views
2K
Bassman2003
B
N
Stuck recirculation BM’s Cream of 3 Crops
Replies
10
Views
1K
Niatras
N
S
In search of...predictable mash efficiency for differing batch sizes & gravities
Replies
11
Views
722
Deadalus
Deadalus
F
how to prevent channeling in the mash pipe
Replies
6
Views
496
JohnDBrewer
J
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top