Extract Sour Mash

[RobWalker]

I've been reading about sour beers lately and I'm trying to come up with a way to try one without too much outlay. There's a few reasons behind that, but it's mostly because I don't want to spend a full brew day on a sour beer, and because I don't want 5 gallons of sour beer that I probably won't drink.

If I decide to brew a 2 gallon batch, could I use extract instead of pale malt for the bulk of the beer and then conduct the sour mash stage by adding some extra pale malt to my extract solution and then letting it sit for 2 days? Or does it require the full quantity of grain in the mash to work properly?

furthermore, I do want it to be ready in a reasonable timescale. these year-old sours don't appeal to me much, as it's just a bit of fun for me really. which is the best method to achieve this?

Those who could use a refresher on sour mashing check here...

http://byo.com/stories/item/889-how-to-make-a-sour-mash-techniques

Lastly, what's this about no/low boil sour beers? could I really boil for 15 mins with some northern brewer hops and that's it? I would think you'd want to to sterilize the wort at least...

cheers!

 

[pieman396]

I've been reading about sour beers lately and I'm trying to come up with a way to try one without too much outlay. There's a few reasons behind that, but it's mostly because I don't want to spend a full brew day on a sour beer, and because I don't want 5 gallons of sour beer that I probably won't drink.

If I decide to brew a 2 gallon batch, could I use extract instead of pale malt for the bulk of the beer and then conduct the sour mash stage by adding some extra pale malt to my extract solution and then letting it sit for 2 days? Or does it require the full quantity of grain in the mash to work properly?

furthermore, I do want it to be ready in a reasonable timescale. these year-old sours don't appeal to me much, as it's just a bit of fun for me really. which is the best method to achieve this?

Those who could use a refresher on sour mashing check here...

http://byo.com/stories/item/889-how-to-make-a-sour-mash-techniques

Lastly, what's this about no/low boil sour beers? could I really boil for 15 mins with some northern brewer hops and that's it? I would think you'd want to to sterilize the wort at least...

cheers!

I dunno if this is what you are looking for, but this is how I did a sour berliner weiss with extract in a 4 week timeframe. I made wort with about 50/50 wheat/pilsen DME at about 1.038 OG. After cooling the wort to 95ish degrees. Pitched Wyeast lacto and put the brew kettle in the oven. Kept it in the oven for 3 days, tasting every 12 hours to ensure it hadn't gotten too sour. Kept the light on in the oven which kept the temps consistently around 95 degrees. If it dipped too low I turned the oven on for a minute. A few times it got as high as 110F but I was fine with that. Once it was sufficiently sour, I boiled for 15 minutes to kill off the lacto and prevent infection of my equipment. Also added half an ounce of hallertau for those 15 minutes (5 gallon boil btw). Pitched a kolsh yeast (wyeast 1007 i believe) to finish up fermentation and bottled about 10 days after that. 2 weeks of carbing and it was ready. I will say that I should have soured it either longer or warmer. it was great at first but after a few weeks it wasn't sour enough for me. You should keep tasting every 12 hours and get it as sour as you like (or more) cause the initial sourness drops off fast. I would also recommend covering the wort in plastic wrap or something while it's in the oven to keep oxygen out. If you have any questions, just let me know.

 

[pieman396]

^^BTW, this tasted like a slightly more tart Bell's Oarsmen.

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

What I've done in the past is just make a full wort, put it outside (pretty warm here in Miami) in a carboy with some uncrushed 2-row, then pasteurize when it's sour enough (about an entire week). Then I just pitch yeast and treat it like a normal wort.

 

[bknifefight]

Yes, you can sour mash without a proper mash. Use a handful of uncrushed grains and throw it into your wort at about 100*. Keep it that temperature (by adding boiling water every so often) in a mash tun and sample it every 8 hours or so. If kept at a good temperature, you should have a nice tart beer within 48 hours. I usually do all my Berliner Weisses for 36 hours. I am not sure if the 2 gallons of wort will sour quicker or not though. So you must sample it and once it's sour enough, do your 15 minute boil to kill the lacto and treat it like a regular beer from then on.

 

[RobWalker]

Would it need to be pasteurized or can I boil to do that? boiling is easily done so that's appealing. thanks for that, i'm feeling more and more confident with each post!

I'm using a 30L BIAB system so keeping this quantity at the right temp is difficult. I think my best bet is to borrow a coolbox and insulate it as best I can - measure how much I can get in there and make it up that way. I suppose I can liquor back if the extract needs to be concentrated when it's made up with hot water. With 2 gallons, I can return to the boil the next day as I have a 2 gallon pot that boils quickly

So to clarify;

- Get 2 gallon coolbox
- make up wort with extract to 1.035 or something and get temp to 100f (37c to me.)
- add a handful of pale malt
- leave for 36-48 hours at this temp, returning to heat if neccessary and tasting along the way until sourness is where i want it
- boil for 15 mins with a small quantity of hops
- cool and ferment as usual. when fermented, add finings and then bottle + prime.

also, does yeast type matter (oh, that can of worms?) particularly? I ask because I have half a packet of APA yeast that isn't worth building up, but I'm not likely to use it otherwise. I think the clean flavour would help the beer somewhat, and this is really a toe in the water so i'd like to keep things simple!

 

[terrapinj]

not mentioned so far but it's essential to keep as much oxygen out as possible while you are souring your wort - lacto doesn't need o2 and other spoiling microorganisms that live on the grain will thrive at the same conditions with o2 leading to butyric acid which smells like regurgitated poop garbage

 

[bknifefight]

not mentioned so far but it's essential to keep as much oxygen out as possible while you are souring your wort - lacto doesn't need o2 and other spoiling microorganisms that live on the grain will thrive at the same conditions with o2 leading to butyric acid which smells like regurgitated poop garbage

+10000
If you have a kegging system, flush out your mash tun with CO2 whenever you disturb it. The sour mash will smell like cooked corn if the lacto are the only bugs. It will smell like vomit if other bugs take hold. You will ruin your marriage.