I have been reading a lot and became intrigued by sour mashes, so last night I began a partial sour "mash" (pardon the improper use of the term) as an extract. I enjoy sour beers and fully expect my experiment to turn out only very mildly sour and lacking in complexity since I am keeping things relatively simple. Please chime in with any recommendations for improvement! I have limited brewing equipment right now and didn't want to dedicate any carboys or hoses to sour beers only. Here's what I've done up until this point:
-On the stovetop I boiled 1 gallon of distilled water
-Added 1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME and about 1/3 lb Pilsner Light DME
-I brought it back to a boil and boiled while I sanitized a 1 gallon glass jug and funnel and drank some homebrew.
-I pre-heated my glass jug before pouring in the hot wort and making a big mess of my countertop.
-I let the wort cool to my target temperature of 120 degrees. At that point I put the jug in my 5 gallon water cooler and filled around the jug with hot tap water (122 degrees measured straight out of the tap).
-I added as much 2-row uncrushed as I could before the jug overflowed. It was not a lot of grains, probably a handful, about 1/2 cup. They initially floated towards the surface.
-I covered the jug with plastic wrap and pushed it down into the wort so there was not much oxygen, however when I dumped the wort into the jug, there was lots of splashing so hopefully I didn't cause myself problems.
-I topped off the water around the jug and covered my cooler. The water temperature was about 118 degrees at 9pm last night.
-This morning at 7am I opened the cooler. There was not a strong smell, but definitely a little something. It did not smell bad. The grains had released some trapped air and sunk to the bottom. I had to push the plastic wrap down further to force the air out of the jug. The water temp had fallen to about 105 overnight. I drained the water and added new hot water. My target is to keep the temp between 105-120, but definitely between 90-130. I plan to brew This Sunday afternoon. Here's a summary of my recipe:
5 gallon batch full boil
Steeping Grains:
0.75 lbs Belgian Cara 45
0.75 lbs Special B
0.125 lbs Debittered Black Malt
Total fermentables including the partial sour mash:
6 lbs Pilsen LME
1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME (in sour mash)
1 lb Pilsner Light DME (1/3 in sour mash)
Hops:
1 oz Tradition for 60 minutes
Yeast:
US-05
This recipe is essentially NB's Oud Bruin kit plus the DME for the sour mash and without the bugs and super long fermentation (1-3 years). I plan to add the 1 gallon of sour "mash" prior to the hops addition and return it all to a boil unless someone here recommends that I do something else. Any thoughts on this from people with experience? I do have an opportunity to change something before Sunday. I'll post up how the brew day goes!
-On the stovetop I boiled 1 gallon of distilled water
-Added 1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME and about 1/3 lb Pilsner Light DME
-I brought it back to a boil and boiled while I sanitized a 1 gallon glass jug and funnel and drank some homebrew.
-I pre-heated my glass jug before pouring in the hot wort and making a big mess of my countertop.
-I let the wort cool to my target temperature of 120 degrees. At that point I put the jug in my 5 gallon water cooler and filled around the jug with hot tap water (122 degrees measured straight out of the tap).
-I added as much 2-row uncrushed as I could before the jug overflowed. It was not a lot of grains, probably a handful, about 1/2 cup. They initially floated towards the surface.
-I covered the jug with plastic wrap and pushed it down into the wort so there was not much oxygen, however when I dumped the wort into the jug, there was lots of splashing so hopefully I didn't cause myself problems.
-I topped off the water around the jug and covered my cooler. The water temperature was about 118 degrees at 9pm last night.
-This morning at 7am I opened the cooler. There was not a strong smell, but definitely a little something. It did not smell bad. The grains had released some trapped air and sunk to the bottom. I had to push the plastic wrap down further to force the air out of the jug. The water temp had fallen to about 105 overnight. I drained the water and added new hot water. My target is to keep the temp between 105-120, but definitely between 90-130. I plan to brew This Sunday afternoon. Here's a summary of my recipe:
5 gallon batch full boil
Steeping Grains:
0.75 lbs Belgian Cara 45
0.75 lbs Special B
0.125 lbs Debittered Black Malt
Total fermentables including the partial sour mash:
6 lbs Pilsen LME
1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME (in sour mash)
1 lb Pilsner Light DME (1/3 in sour mash)
Hops:
1 oz Tradition for 60 minutes
Yeast:
US-05
This recipe is essentially NB's Oud Bruin kit plus the DME for the sour mash and without the bugs and super long fermentation (1-3 years). I plan to add the 1 gallon of sour "mash" prior to the hops addition and return it all to a boil unless someone here recommends that I do something else. Any thoughts on this from people with experience? I do have an opportunity to change something before Sunday. I'll post up how the brew day goes!
