Not sure if I screwed up a Gose or not...advice welcomed

I have brewed all-grain for a few years and have never had an infection. I switched to BIAB about a year and a half ago for simplicity, using a BrewHardware.com RIMS setup with a PID controller for mash control. This setup has resulted in some really good brews, but I have never done a sour beer and had the 'bug' to make one.

I tried Jamil Z's Gose recipie in the March-April edition of BYO, which includes a sour mash method. After a 149F mash for 90 minutes and confirming conversion, I mashed out to 168F, chilled the pot down to 120F and then threw in 6oz acid malt. I put the lid on the pot, taped the lid down, purged the oxygen with CO2 and put a pot heater on it. It never got lower than 111F and usually was in the 114-116F range in my Las Vegas garage.

24 hours into the sour mash, my garage smelled pretty bad (not too unlike vomit, really), the pH had dropped to 4.0 and I immediately pulled the BIAB grains and boiled it. The grain bag smelled really awful and looked very funky like I have never seen. After the boil and chilling, the resulting 'wort' did not smell good, but I oxygenated it like normal (30 seconds), pitched the Kolsch yeast starter and started fermentation at 58F.

A week ago the OG was 1.047 and today the gravity is down to 1.014 and still going a week later. There is still some krausen on top, but most of the active fermentation is over. It might go down to 1.010 or so when really done, I think. The fermentation looked normal, and I do not suspect any infection at this point.

I could not help but try a sample today after checking the gravity. It still does not smell good, but the taste is actually pretty darned good. It tastes like a light, sour beer without any dominating bad aftertastes. But, it still smells kinda bad. Is this normal?

You sour mash experts, what do you all think? Keep and bottle it, or toss and try again?

 

I think if you got vomit smells then those aren't likely to go away, from what I've read. I've only done one sour mash but I did not get any smells like that. I got a bit of a vegetably funk from what I recall, which turned into typical brett funk after my fermentation. If I were you I'd let it ride out a couple more weeks and see if it gets any better. Maybe let the temp rise a bit and then cold crash at the end and see if it's cleared up.

 

Sour mashing is inherently a bit risky. Good luck. Next time you might consider kettle souring-- same thing, you just run the grains off into the kettle first. And pitching a trustworthy starter (using whatever lacto source) helps a lot.

 

Good advice, and sounds more success likely than what I did.

Vomit Gose is a week into 55F 'cold conditioning' following fermentation finish, and I dare not disturb it. If it still reeks of vomit in a week, down the drain it will go.