air lock/blow off for kettle sour

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wapitiscat

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I'm planning on a kettle sour next week (first one) and was going to leave the wort in the kettle and boil after the souring. I'm going to maintain the temp in my ferm chamber and was wondering if I need an air lock on the kettle during souring. I'm going to make sure the lid is on tight (saran wrap or something. Also, will I need to do multiple CO2 purges during the souring?

Todd
 
You do not need an airlock. Even with saran wrap the kettle lid won't hold pressure, and lacto won't produce CO2 anyway.

I believe you can get away with a single CO2 purge at the beginning if it's sealed up well to prevent oxygen from getting in.

I personally haven't soured in the kettle. I use a corny keg as it is so much easier to seal and purge with CO2. For someone that kegs their beer this is a standard procedure that they already know. Creating a saran wrap seal that effectively keeps oxygen out seems much more challenging than popping a lid on a keg. Also there is a ton more head space to worry about in my 20 gallon boil kettle as apposed to a 5 gallon keg.

If you don't have a keg and aren't going to keep it too warm you can sour in a carboy as well. Not as easy to purge as a keg, but easier to seal than a kettle.
 
crane said:
You do not need an airlock. Even with saran wrap the kettle lid won't hold pressure, and lacto won't produce CO2 anyway.

I believe you can get away with a single CO2 purge at the beginning if it's sealed up well to prevent oxygen from getting in.

I personally haven't soured in the kettle. I use a corny keg as it is so much easier to seal and purge with CO2. For someone that kegs their beer this is a standard procedure that they already know. Creating a saran wrap seal that effectively keeps oxygen out seems much more challenging than popping a lid on a keg. Also there is a ton more head space to worry about in my 20 gallon boil kettle as apposed to a 5 gallon keg.

If you don't have a keg and aren't going to keep it too warm you can sour in a carboy as well. Not as easy to purge as a keg, but easier to seal than a kettle.
Click to expand...

Do you use a blow off on your keg? I just bought a 13 gallon Sanke keg to use as a sour keg, but have heard people say that heterofermentive lacto can cause too much gravity drop and foam over. I don't want to use one if I have a choice.
 
najohns said:
Do you use a blow off on your keg? I just bought a 13 gallon Sanke keg to use as a sour keg, but have heard people say that heterofermentive lacto can cause too much gravity drop and foam over. I don't want to use one if I have a choice.
Click to expand...

I don't use a blow off. Just put the keg lid on and let it ride. I've never had it build up pressure, so this would indicate that my lacto sources are not heterofermentive. If you are kettle souring and planning on boiling before pitching your yeast, then you would want to avoid heterofermentive strains.
 
I went with a "purge" where I just directed CO2 into the kettle above the wort then put the lid on. A couple of tasters picked up butyric acid flavor in the finished beer. I detected it prior to fermentation but thought is was almost undetectable post fermentation. Given that the most likely culprit is O2 in the wort/kettle head space during the souring, I'm wondering if I'll have to have CO2 bubbling through the wort during the souring. Any thoughts?

Todd
 
my first and only kettle sour worked out great with the lid only partially shut due to the temp probe. No CO2 purge and no shut lid. It was in my ferm chamber, but that didn't keep much O2 out. I did lower pH of the wort to 4.7 before putting unmashed grains in, so maybe that kept the bad bugs away, but it was down to 3.4 pH in 48 hours and the final beer turned out super sour and super clean.
 
To do a 5g batch i use my 5g pressure canner, mash in a cooler then drain into the canner. I freeze the canner before so it cools the wort to about 100 as it drains using a hose as to not add o2. Then i pour in a bottlen of carconated water and seal the lid. That goes in my oven with just the light on for heat for about 36 hrs. Then i turn up the heat in the oven to 190ish to kill the lacto then chill, move to fermenter for the sake of head room and pitch a massive amount of yeast. In 3 days its ready to keg.

At any stage you can add 1 hop pellet to comply with Reinheitsgebot.
 

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