(Brewing a Berliner Weisse)
So I'm running a sour mash following multiple directions to a point I thought would be reasonable. Its a 50% mash and the directions told me to sour 50% for two days. I went ahead and did the Chris Kennedy method for Sour Mashing, I pretty much threw 3 gallons of 160F water and 2 lbs 2-row + 1.5 lbs wheat as gently as I could into a corny keg (dropped down to 150ish), then purged out all the air by bubbling from the bottom.
I then let the temperature drop down overnight, I added the better part of 1/4 lb of pale malt to the top (spilled some) and repurged. I then a little later put the corny keg in a bottling bucket and surrounded it by hot tap water (120F or so).
Tonight I went ahead and checked the pH and its already at 4.5 or so (going off of strips). The smell is something I can't really describe. It isn't bad at all, its almost like if I left the wet grains out for a day or two. Just smells almost like a clean vomit maybe? Not very pungent or strong.
Anyhow, I'm assuming at some point tomorrow the pH will hit my target of 4. I will then pour it into my brew pot using the bag as a filter. Then I'll do a 60 minute boil just to kill off anything (I know its not traditional just following directions) and pitch it with my other half already in the fermenter.
Anyhow to the point of this, I'm curious to see if a sparge is really necessary since my mash is so thin anyways? My OG should be relatively low anyways 1.040 and its been in there for so long I'm figuring I've gotten a full conversion. I also assume if I don't do the sparge and the fact that its been sitting for so long a mash out is pretty pointless since I'll be directly going to boil anyways.
So I'm running a sour mash following multiple directions to a point I thought would be reasonable. Its a 50% mash and the directions told me to sour 50% for two days. I went ahead and did the Chris Kennedy method for Sour Mashing, I pretty much threw 3 gallons of 160F water and 2 lbs 2-row + 1.5 lbs wheat as gently as I could into a corny keg (dropped down to 150ish), then purged out all the air by bubbling from the bottom.
I then let the temperature drop down overnight, I added the better part of 1/4 lb of pale malt to the top (spilled some) and repurged. I then a little later put the corny keg in a bottling bucket and surrounded it by hot tap water (120F or so).
Tonight I went ahead and checked the pH and its already at 4.5 or so (going off of strips). The smell is something I can't really describe. It isn't bad at all, its almost like if I left the wet grains out for a day or two. Just smells almost like a clean vomit maybe? Not very pungent or strong.
Anyhow, I'm assuming at some point tomorrow the pH will hit my target of 4. I will then pour it into my brew pot using the bag as a filter. Then I'll do a 60 minute boil just to kill off anything (I know its not traditional just following directions) and pitch it with my other half already in the fermenter.
Anyhow to the point of this, I'm curious to see if a sparge is really necessary since my mash is so thin anyways? My OG should be relatively low anyways 1.040 and its been in there for so long I'm figuring I've gotten a full conversion. I also assume if I don't do the sparge and the fact that its been sitting for so long a mash out is pretty pointless since I'll be directly going to boil anyways.
