Kettle sour question

[Sharper]

I brewed my first kettle soured beer over the weekend and have a few questions regarding some of my gravity readings. Here is what I did.

Mashed a Brown ale recipe, sparged and collected 7 gallons of 1.050 pre-boil wort.
Boiled for 15 min. and IC cooled to 100 degrees
Inoculated with L. Brevis
Held temperature at 100 degrees for 36 hours, reached a ph of 3.8
boiled for 60 minutes, added a few hops and cooled

Checked my post boil gravity....... 1.030 ????

Did the L.Brevis create alcohol that I boiled off?
Did I use the wrong strain of Lacto?

Any and all feedback is welcomed, I'm stumped

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Agate]

Your Lacto Brevis culture was most likely infected with yeast, which was consuming the sugar in the wort. And it was boiled off during the 60 minute boil.

If you wanted, you could add some sugar to get your gravity back up, but that would require quite a bit.

Sounds like you did everything right - I'd suggest trying omega labs' Lacto blend next time to avoid the gravity drop. Good luck!

 

[Sharper]

So L.Brevis shouldn't lower the gravity by consuming sugars in the wort?
I used Yeast Bay for the L.Brevis

 

[Agate]

No, it shouldn't, maybe a point or two at most. The vials on TYB's site for Brevis look like white labs' stock, so I'm guessing it's their product and not TYB's.

 

[Sharper]

No, it shouldn't, maybe a point or two at most. The vials on TYB's site for Brevis look like white labs' stock, so I'm guessing it's their product and not TYB's.

I wasn't' sure what to expect and when I took the lid off and the saran wrap back, I was surprised to see a slightly foamy top and it was churning away, just like a sacc ferment.

That's correct, it is labelled White Labs.

Well it looks like I'll have a 2.9% Sour Brown. Thw wort tasted really nice, so here's hoping its a decent beer.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Agate]

I'm sure it'll be great! I wouldn't worry about the ABV, people get hung up on that. It just means you can have more in an evening.

 

[Oldsock]

No, it shouldn't, maybe a point or two at most. The vials on TYB's site for Brevis look like white labs' stock, so I'm guessing it's their product and not TYB's.

Yep, Lance measured a ~.003 drop with WL L. brevis (and that took the pH to 3.14).

 

[Sharper]

Just to follow-up.

The beer tastes like a 102 degree sacc ferment, not nice.
And surprisingly, US-05 only took it from 1.030 to 1.016?
And it measured a ph of 3.8 and it doesn't really taste sout/tart at all...

I'm gonna dump it and try again this weekend, any suggestions for a successful brew day are appreciated.


- Scott

 

[CorporateHippie]

sounds like you did everything spot on..... make sure you don't have much oxygen in the kettle before you set it to sour. I have had great luck using probiotic pills. Buy the off brand from walmart and break open about 5 pills into your kettle. (mine holds about 6.5 gallons when I do it). 36 hours gets me to about 3.5-3.6 pH and the cost saving vs vials of lacto are great. I think the good mix of lacto blends in the pills are nice too because different strains of lacto can sour at different temps.

 

[Agate]

Either omega labs or a probiotic as mentioned above. I like Swanson lacto plantarum, just needs room temp. 3 to 5 pills in a 1-liter starter for a couple days. Good belly probiotic juice is a great way to go, too. Pitch at 90F and let it drop to room temp, should be nice and sour in 18-24 hours.