How Screwed Am I?

[phofmann]

(I hope I am posting this in the right place, it didn't seem to quite fit any of the other forums )

I am finding conflicting research on brewing sour beers and, more importantly, the hazards of contamination. I have brewed two sours now, kegged one and bottled the other. I use all glass fermentation vessels and am meticulous about cleaning and sanitizing everything.

I have brewed other beers since doing the sours and they tasted like they were supposed to, without any sour, or off flavor, notes. Was I just lucky and dodged a bullet? Moving forward I am going to put some best practices in place to try and avoid mass contamination, but I am still wondering if it is just to risky to brew sours at home... (Which would be bad, because brewing sours is how I get the fiance to sign off on all the cool home brew equipment purchases).

 

[jrgtr42]

Glass is better to use for sours because they can be cleaned and sanitized better / easier than plastic (plastic can develop tiny scratches that the bugs can hide in and avoid sanitizers.)
Personally, I do my primary fermentation in plastic, (ale pails) then transfer over to glass carboys for souring. I have dedicated hoses for post-souring transfers. I use my same racking cane and bottling wand, rinsing well and running sanitizer through afterwards. Haven't had any issues so far.

 

[deadwolfbones]

You should be fine if you're meticulous about cleaning. Glass and stainless are >> plastic for sours. Best practice is probably to dedicate an entire set of equipment (carboy, hoses, bottling wand, etc) to your sour batches, but it's not necessary if you pay enough attention.

 

[BrewInspector]

Same as above... and it depends as well on how you brew your sours.

Kettle soured beers that are then boiled before fermentation have virtually no risk of contaminating future brews.

Those that are fermented with the souring bugs have significantly greater chance of contaminating future brews. Separate equipment and proper cleaning can minimize that risk greatly.

 

[phofmann]

Thanks so much for the information! I *think* moving forward my processes will be:

• Separate fermenter(s) for sours
• Separate auto-siphon/tubing for bottling sours (really the only thing I bottle anymore)
• Dedicated keg for sour beers
• Dedicated shelf space for sour equipment
• Separate flask/foam stopper for sour yeast starts
• Dedicated day for sour beers (instead of brewing multiple styles in a day)

Anything else I should be considering?