Kettle sour is fermenting - now what?

[jbedell2]

Attempting my first sour, a simple kettle soured Berliner Weisse using White labs pure lacto brevis. Mashed last night, boiled for a few minutes, cooled to 95f, then pitched the lacto and put the lid on. I didn't purge with co2 since I read that it's not really necessary when using a pure lacto pitch. So now, 24 hrs later, it's clear that the wort is fermenting. Moderate krausen, bubbly wort, and a blast of co2 when I stick my head in the kettle. I haven't checked gravity yet but The ph doesn't seem to be going down much, maybe a little.

So, I guess either I got a little bit of yeast in there, though I'm not sure how that would have happened and taken off so quickly, or the lacto is doing the thing that lowers gravity (heterofermentive? Something like that?)

So, my main question is: what should I do now? I think if I boil now and pitch yeast, I'll boil off all the alcohol and wind up with like a 1% beer. Should I raise to 170 to pasteurize the lacto but hopefully not boil off the ethanol? Or just transfer to a fermentor and see what happens?

One thing I'll mention is that there is no bad smell coming out of the kettle now - it just smells like fermenting wort.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Wait. Maybe I'm confused. Are you kettle souring, mash souring, or pitching a lacto culture in the fermenter?

Those are 3 different things. Typically the mash and kettle sour are done before fermentation.

 

[shortyz]

dude you fermented with lacto for 24 hrs, it didnt magically convert all your sugars to alc in 24 hours. proceed as usual with the kettle sour instructions.

 

[Staylow]

From what I've read, that White Labs Lacto is widely considered to be infected with yeast. Have you checked the gravity?

 

[andrewbrews]

I would check the gravity, measure pH and then taste it. If you are worried about loss of some sugars for alcohol, you can always add some corn sugar, dextrose, or other fermentable sugar to get your OG back to where you want it.

If it taste alright and is at the pH you want, just move ahead with it.

 

[Grod1]

Taste the beer, when you get the tartness you want boil/hop cool and pitch your yeast.