First Sour Mash

[casesensative]

Doing my first sour mash, and I have a quick question.

My plan was to mash the grains as per normal, sparge, heat to 180 to stop enzymatic activity, siphon back into mash tun, let cool to 120, pitch a few handfuls of grain, cover the mash with saran, and let sour for 15 hours. Then boil and continue on as normal.

My question is should I be waiting until after sour mashing to sparge or does it not really matter? It seems like it wouldn't really matter, but a lot of the reading ive done on it says they sparge after the sour mashing.

Thanks!

 

[casesensative]

I decided to wait until after sour mashing to sparge. So i soured the entire mash last night.

I doughed in thick, did my regular mash, then let it cool to about 130-135. Then I chucked in about 5 oz of uncrushed 2 row. sealed top with saran wrap and c02, and left to sit in a sleeping bag.

Checking in on the sour mash now 10 hours later and does not smell weird at all. Nothing noticeable on top of the mash. Had a small taste and did not notice anything funky.

Looks like it never took off? Does it normally take longer than this? I read that doing a FULL sour mash you shouldnt let it go more than 18-24 hours unless your prepared for extreme sourness, yet this isnt sour at all at 10?

 

[Exportjo]

I have never done a sour mash myself. However, based off what I have read and what I know about lactobacillus it can take hours, or even days depending on your method. It seems you've done everything right except the inoculating temperature. Lacto doesn't like 120+ temps, I would suggest next time you bring it down to 115ish and then inoculate with your grain, or better yet inoculate with pure lacto from white labs.


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[pdxal]

Besides the temperature you pitched the grain at you also keep the sour mash warm, 90-100 is the sweet spot for me. Sounds like you have the right idea, just need to tweak the process a little bit. My sour mashes have been slow at first, then turn funky and sour rapidly from 18-24 hours on. 36-48 hours and most will want to blend the batch to temper the sourness.

 

[revansCAAD8]

Any update casesensative?

 

[Natdavis777]

I plan on doing a similar procedure this summer for a Berliner Weisse. I plan of just mashing/sparge as usual and fill up my kettle with the pre boil volume and then pitch the grains ( in a bag so I can pull them back out). I plan on letting it ride for 24 hours and then checking pH with a meter. Boil when I get it where I want for 15 min or so and then cool and pitch.

Im interested to see how your process turned out though...