First Sour Mash

Here's the Plan:
Sour a full mash. Split half off as a pretty legit "Berliner-Weiss" and then bump up the other half with some LME and turn that into a Half-sour Saison.

7/13 1pm
4.5# White Wheat Malt
4.5# 2 Row
.5# Rice hulls

1.25qts/lb @ 152 deg(actual variance 148-153deg)
Allow to cool to below 120deg and pitch .5# additional 2row.(in reality, after I pitched and readjusted the probe therm, it read 126deg, so I pitched and additional .25# after it hit 108deg)
natural cooling took approx. 4hrs
After folding in additional malt, I pressed plastic wrapped aluminum foil to the surface and discharged some CO2 into the headspace before placing lid on the container.
Hold temp at 110deg for 60-72hrs. I'll be shooting for a pH of 3-3.5

Will continue posting as it goes...
1st Post and 4th brew overall!

Nice. I'm planning a parti-gyle brew for this coming Tuesday. After running off the wort for the first batch, I'm going to sour the mash for a nice low gravity Berlinerweisse.

I don't have a way to maintain the temp like your set-up, but I'll be watching this thread for ideas.

I just ordered a bucket heater from Amazon to try with. This is the one I ordered, nothing more to offer if it's any good, will be brewing next weekend.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BDB4UG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Checked the pH after 48 hrs post innoculation. Dead on 4. I'll be sticking to my plan which should leave the total time at about 4hrs shy of 3 days, and hopefully right around 3.5pH
Tasted a sample from the middle which I'll say was much tastier than we all expected. (If I was going for slightly sour wheat or fruit beer, I think this would be a great place to stop) A pleasant sourness with a bit of sourdough bread-ness. No unpleasant aroma at all. The top is rising above the surface of the liquid a bit, but no negative looking signs. My plan is to steep a bit of the surface layer in warm water and see if it has an off-flavors, then decide whether to skim or not.
(note- after disturbing the mash, I re-blanketed with CO2, just for good measure)

big day tomorrow, I'll try to keep up with the log and pics!

signpost- Please let us know how things go. I love the idea of making brew day multipurpose while you've got all the equipment out and whatnot, that's why I'm diversifying tomorrow! Also, being a newb, you get to try more/learn more and nearly eliminate the possibility of total failure!

I will say-having never done this before- that I think the temp control is a big plus. It seems like lots of people's experiences have been colored by unwanted visitors due to fluctuating temps. A few other thoughts I had were reptile heating pad under the fermentor and fish tank heater which could be set up just like I have the circulator in the outside water bath. Could be pretty cheap/easy to find solutions.

Best of luck

It took longer than expected to get my mash cooled down to 120°F. But it's there now, and I got the extra grain mixed in. It is sitting outside for now and I'll put it in the garage over night. I'll probably check the temp before I go to bed tonight and again when I get up in the morning. That way I'll know how much temp change occurs just overnight. I kind of wish the cooler temps had held off for a couple more days. Oh well.

The first batch of my partigyle went really well, if anybody was curious. Its a Belgian blonde ale and the only problem was that I boiled off more than expected. I was able to fix that by adding about a half gallon of water to get to my target gravity.

Here's hoping things continue to go well with this batch.

So here's the Berliner 1/2
pH after souring(68 hours was 3.8, note- it was at 4pH at 48hrs)
Pleasant, sourdough/weak lemon curd taste/aroma
I did skim off 1/3in of the surface grain that was discolored

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Rasp Berliner

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Berliner Weisse
Boil Time: 45 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.041
Efficiency: 83% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 4.53%
IBU (tinseth): 6.3
SRM (morey): 3.49

FERMENTABLES:
2.25 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (50%)
2.25 lb - American - White Wheat (50%)

HOPS:
0.25 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 6.3

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temp: 152 F, Time: 45 min, Amount: 11.25 qt, SOUR MASH
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.25 lb - rice hulls, Type: Other, Use: Mash

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No (pitched 1 full Pkt to compensate for low pH)
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 60 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
Sour everything 3 days with 1.25qts/LB
Starting at 152deg for 45 min.
Add 1/4# raw grain when cooled under 120deg. Hold 2 3/4 days @110-115deg

Drain and adjust volume with 170deg batch sparges

.... and the second half of the sour mash, beefed up with a little LME. Now we wait...

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Sour Saison

Brew Method: Partial Mash
Style Name: Saison
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.021
Efficiency: 80% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 4.75%
IBU (tinseth): 30.05
SRM (morey): 3.98

FERMENTABLES:
2.25 lb - American - White Wheat (29.4%)
2.25 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (29.4%)
3.15 lb - Liquid Malt Extract - Light - (late addition) (41.2%)

HOPS:
0.75 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 15.09
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 13.87
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 12.5, Use: Boil for 1 min, IBU: 1.1

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 45 min, Amount: 1.25 qt

YEAST:
Wyeast - French Saison 3711
Starter: Yes
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 80%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Temp: 65 - 77 F
Fermentation Temp: 80 F
Pitch Rate: 0.75 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
Starter 3.6oz dme in 1.5L h20
18hrs
Pitch yeast at 70, let Rise to about 80deg

whirlfloc

Nice.

Mine was a partigyle with the first batch being a Belgian blonde/golden ale that used mostly Pilsner malt. After running off that batch and getting it on the burner, I added about 1.5 lbs. of wheat to the mash and held at about 150F for 45 minutes or so. At that point, I took the lid off the mash tun and stirred occassional, trying to cool it down to 120F. That didn't work very well. After finishing up the other batch, I ended up using ice additions to get the temp down.

When it was finally down to 120F, I added a half pound of uncrushed 2-row stirred well and popped the lid on. I didn't put plastic wrap over it. I didn't use CO2. Just put the lid on and that was it. Before dark, I moved it into the garage. Over night it dropped to about 101F, so I added some boiling water to bring the temp back up to about 112F or so. That was the only addition I needed to keep it between 90F and 120F.

I couldn't get to it again to check it or do anything until after lunch today. I added water to bring my mash to the full volume for the batch. Ran it off into the kettle and got it started boiling. I did a 15 minute boil and added just enough hops to get maybe 8 or 9 IBUS.

Here's the stat line as it went into the carboy:

OG 1.034
pH ~3 to 3.5

All I have are the crappy litmus paper strips, so it looked like it was probably just above 3, but I can't be much more precise than that. Based on info I found online, that seems to be in about the right range, though.

I couldn't bring myself to taste it. After being around that acidic aroma through that whole process, I just got it in the carboy and cleaned up as fast as I could. I pitched some Wyeast 1272 American Ale II and I am finished with it for now.

I was getting nervous, because I had pitched the Wyeast 1272 straight from the fridge and there was no airlock activity even after 24 hours. Luckily, now it is going strong and has a nice krausen and everything.

This batch is low gravity, I only ended up with about 3.5 (maybe 3.75) gallons, and the jar of yeast was only about a month old, so I figured I didn't really need to do a starter. Of course, that led to some lag before the fermentation got going. I got nervous. Luckily, I didn't do anything silly and the fermentation is in full swing.

Bottled Yesterday!

I am very happy with both brews. As my first all-grain, I'm finally happy that the color I had in my head came out in the beer.
Picked up some berries and peaches at the farmers' mkt yesterday to maybe fool around with some syrups for the berliner- though I like it just fine straight.

Saison ended up at 1.001
Berliner at 1.012

Can't wait to taste them with bubbles!

Nice! I bottled mine up on Tuesday. It turned out plenty sour, that's for sure. My wife smelled the sample and said it smelled like lemonade to her. I pretty much made it because she liked a Berliner at a local brewery, so I'm glad she responded so well to it at this point.

I'm excited for the bubbles, too!

Just cracked open the first bottle of my batch and it turned out absolutely beautifully!

A bright golden color with a little bit of haze, which I assume is from the wheat. The carbonation is just about perfect (3.3 oz. of table sugar for the ~4.5 gallon batch). The aroma is very tart with a hint of musty or cheesy notes that I think show off the authenticity of using a traditional method. The flavor is much cleaner than the aroma, with a nice fizzyness from the carbonation bringing the acidity of the beer to life. Absolutely no hint of mustyness or funkiness in the flavor. Just a wonderfully tart, light, and refreshing beer.

I made it for SWMBO, and she loves it. And we are going to take some to share with friends (and a fellow homebrewer) tomorrow night. We'll have a bottle of Framboise on hand to mix with the Berliner for those that want to sweeten it up a bit.

It is definitely more one-dimensional than other sour styles, but it packs a lot of flavor into a 3.3% ABV beer. This is definitely something I'll consider brewing again in the future.