Last year I did a sour mashed berliner weisse heating the mash to kill of anything "bad" and then throwing in some uncrushed 2-row for lacto. I covered the surface with saran wrap then put the lid on the mash tun (kettle) and kept it in a warm oven for 48 or so hours. I'm still hanging onto a couple of bottles to savor because it turned out so well. I planned another one sometime soon, but didn't have as much leftover uncrushed 2-row as I thought. On top of that, I started to get paranoid that the first time, I just got lucky and got a good mix of stuff from that grain. So I started brainstorming and researching other options for lacto (No LHBS).
One idea that I found outside of the brewing community was to capture ambient bacteria and isolate lacto using MILK! Yes, milk. Well, as luck would have it, I had the last bit of a jug of milk start to get a little off. I stuck probably 8oz or so into a mason jar, and put it a warm oven yesterday. Supposedly, the milk environment limits bacterial growth to all or almost all lactobacillus. Today it has separated into curd with the sour whey below it, and it smells.....really nice, actually. clean and sour. I'm planning to scoop/skim/strain to separate the layers and pitch this liquid into my BW.
I'm excited about it and thought I'd share this readily available option for bugs. Happy souring!
One idea that I found outside of the brewing community was to capture ambient bacteria and isolate lacto using MILK! Yes, milk. Well, as luck would have it, I had the last bit of a jug of milk start to get a little off. I stuck probably 8oz or so into a mason jar, and put it a warm oven yesterday. Supposedly, the milk environment limits bacterial growth to all or almost all lactobacillus. Today it has separated into curd with the sour whey below it, and it smells.....really nice, actually. clean and sour. I'm planning to scoop/skim/strain to separate the layers and pitch this liquid into my BW.
I'm excited about it and thought I'd share this readily available option for bugs. Happy souring!