When I have a question, I tend to share ALL the details, so apologies in advance for the long post.
A week ago I got a pre-wired electric element for cheap off Taobao - the Chinese online marketplace. I discovered upon testing it and trying to stir the water with a metal implement that it zaps the water with electricity. Presumably this is intentional since the package has a warning symbol about not testing the water temp with your fingers, though I initially assumed that was just because you shouldn't touch boiling water with your bare skin.
I did a simple 50/50 pils/wheat mash and gave it a 10 minute boil to kill any bugs. The SG was around 1.022-1.025 - I didn't get too worried about proper reading since it was technically a pre-boil reading. I pre-acidified the ~7.5 gallons of wort step by step with =/>80% Lactic Acid until my crappy (but recently-calibrated - though I'm still inclined to wonder about its reliability) domestic pH meter read 4.45.
I pitched my bugs - a little 100mL bottle of Yakult lacto yogurt drink - and plugged the element into the STC-1000 and set it to 47C, around 117F to stay above the threshold for nasty bugs, with plastic wrap around the lid of the kettle to keep out any extra oxygen. I did no other steps to remove oxygen since I don't have a CO2 system or any dry ice lying around. A couple days later I tested the wort and my pH meter actually read 4.9! The cheap pH strips from the domestic online HBS were tough to read accurately but they certainly didn't read lower than 4.4 and may have been higher. I tried pitching another bottle of Yakult and waited another day. Around this point, someone in another thread of mine suggested my element was probably electrocuting my bugs (doh!) so I unplugged it, plugged in a space heater that I put right next to the kettle, chucked in a final Yakult, and let it ride for three days, during which it was ~37C (~99F) for most of the time.
I tested the wort again today and found it had indeed soured, down to 4.11 according to the meter and an uncertain amount according to the strips (they bottom out at 3.8 and I couldn't tell if it was totally yellow or still had a tinge of green that would put it as high as the 4.1 the meter was reading). Chucked it on the burner and turned on the heating element for a bit of boil assist/bug zapping, and that's where I am now. When it started to roil a bit, some mucusy Yakult-colored stuff started floating up (think the peach/apricot colored Crayola crayons we all used as kids to color the skin tone of a white person) that went right through the sieve when I tried to strain it out (with the element unplugged). The wort doesn't have any particular unusual smell - just a bit more bready than usual - and I haven't tasted it yet.
I'm not super worried about making a crappy beer, since I can always dump it after fermentation if that's the case, and I'm likewise unworried about it not being sour enough since I can add lactic acid to cheat my way to a reasonable level. The biggest question is: is there any way this wort/beer might be dangerous to consume? I believe botulinum toxin is the one that people get worried about, since you can kill the bugs but the poison poop sticks around. On the one hand, I don't want to risk my/someone else's health over $10 of ingredients and a couple hours of time invested. On the other hand, I don't want to pointlessly dump a batch of beer if there's nothing to worry about. Any advice?
tl;dr - long, lowish-temperature kettle sour, safe to drink or potentially toxic?
A week ago I got a pre-wired electric element for cheap off Taobao - the Chinese online marketplace. I discovered upon testing it and trying to stir the water with a metal implement that it zaps the water with electricity. Presumably this is intentional since the package has a warning symbol about not testing the water temp with your fingers, though I initially assumed that was just because you shouldn't touch boiling water with your bare skin.
I did a simple 50/50 pils/wheat mash and gave it a 10 minute boil to kill any bugs. The SG was around 1.022-1.025 - I didn't get too worried about proper reading since it was technically a pre-boil reading. I pre-acidified the ~7.5 gallons of wort step by step with =/>80% Lactic Acid until my crappy (but recently-calibrated - though I'm still inclined to wonder about its reliability) domestic pH meter read 4.45.
I pitched my bugs - a little 100mL bottle of Yakult lacto yogurt drink - and plugged the element into the STC-1000 and set it to 47C, around 117F to stay above the threshold for nasty bugs, with plastic wrap around the lid of the kettle to keep out any extra oxygen. I did no other steps to remove oxygen since I don't have a CO2 system or any dry ice lying around. A couple days later I tested the wort and my pH meter actually read 4.9! The cheap pH strips from the domestic online HBS were tough to read accurately but they certainly didn't read lower than 4.4 and may have been higher. I tried pitching another bottle of Yakult and waited another day. Around this point, someone in another thread of mine suggested my element was probably electrocuting my bugs (doh!) so I unplugged it, plugged in a space heater that I put right next to the kettle, chucked in a final Yakult, and let it ride for three days, during which it was ~37C (~99F) for most of the time.
I tested the wort again today and found it had indeed soured, down to 4.11 according to the meter and an uncertain amount according to the strips (they bottom out at 3.8 and I couldn't tell if it was totally yellow or still had a tinge of green that would put it as high as the 4.1 the meter was reading). Chucked it on the burner and turned on the heating element for a bit of boil assist/bug zapping, and that's where I am now. When it started to roil a bit, some mucusy Yakult-colored stuff started floating up (think the peach/apricot colored Crayola crayons we all used as kids to color the skin tone of a white person) that went right through the sieve when I tried to strain it out (with the element unplugged). The wort doesn't have any particular unusual smell - just a bit more bready than usual - and I haven't tasted it yet.
I'm not super worried about making a crappy beer, since I can always dump it after fermentation if that's the case, and I'm likewise unworried about it not being sour enough since I can add lactic acid to cheat my way to a reasonable level. The biggest question is: is there any way this wort/beer might be dangerous to consume? I believe botulinum toxin is the one that people get worried about, since you can kill the bugs but the poison poop sticks around. On the one hand, I don't want to risk my/someone else's health over $10 of ingredients and a couple hours of time invested. On the other hand, I don't want to pointlessly dump a batch of beer if there's nothing to worry about. Any advice?
tl;dr - long, lowish-temperature kettle sour, safe to drink or potentially toxic?
