Sour Equipment

[Alderbrew]

I just made my wife a sour. I am not a fan of sours at all. My local shop told me that I would need to keep the bucket for sours only now.

But the question is. Is all the equipment that it touch soured now or only the primary fermentation bucket.

So far I has touched, the primary bucket, SS conical fermenter, 5 gal plastic carboy, plastic hose and the SS keg.

What is ok to clean as normal and what has to be dedicated to sours only now?

 

[Kickass]

I’d clean the SS and mark the rest for sours only.

 

[evolutionary]

Agree - although if you find the sour isn't good, you may have to toss some or all of the plastic equipment. Made a 100% brett ale awhile back and none of us liked the specific brett taste it gave at all, and now the beast of that brett strain is overpowering our other sours we have made in the same equipment despite healthy pitches of good mixed ferm yeast/bacteria/etc.

 

[mac_1103]

I’d clean the SS and mark the rest for sours only.

Yes, but I would still clean and disinfect the sours only buckets and tubing as though I was going to use it for other things. So multiple rounds of cleaning with different cleaners followed by multiple rounds of disinfection with different disinfectants.

 

[Kickass]

Yes, but I would still clean and disinfect the sours only buckets and tubing as though I was going to use it for other things. So multiple rounds of cleaning with different cleaners followed by multiple rounds of disinfection with different disinfectants.

Yes. I wasn’t entirely clear. Clean and sanitize everything. The SS, provided every nook and cranny is cleaned and sanitized, should be ok for non sours. Everything else, after being cleaned and sanitized, should probably be used for sours only.

 

[hottpeper13]

Maybe just do a kettle sour and not worry about it.

 

[Dgallo]

I just made my wife a sour. I am not a fan of sours at all. My local shop told me that I would need to keep the bucket for sours only now.

But the question is. Is all the equipment that it touch soured now or only the primary fermentation bucket.

So far I has touched, the primary bucket, SS conical fermenter, 5 gal plastic carboy, plastic hose and the SS keg.

What is ok to clean as normal and what has to be dedicated to sours only now?

If you’re using only lactobacilius for your souring culture, you DO NOT need new equipment. It’s easy to get rid of and even if you did happen to leave some behind, it is extremely hop sensitive and won’t be able to sour past 15-20 ibus so it won’t impact beers since you’ll typically have higher ibus in your beers.

Now if your going to be doing funk with Brett and other lactic acid producing bacteria like peddiocaccus than you might want to invest in an inexpensive PET fermenter like fermonsters. I brew a lot of funk so I have a few dedicated fermonsters (lids spigots axirlocks) and hoses to prevent any serious funk infections

 

[Snuffy]

Have any of you guys ever used this? https://cellarscience.com/products/acid-dry-beer-yeast

 

[hotbeer]

A strong bleach solution will sanitize everything very well. I've put 2 cups of bleach to 4 gallons of water and not had any blemish at all on the stainless steel stuff I put in it and soaked for 2 hours. 1 hour soak will have been plenty though. Rinse thoroughly with clean water and let dry if you are going to put it away. If you are going to use it immediately, I just let it drain well then toss in my normal bucket with Iodophor or StarSan which will dilute any last remnant of bleach solution left on them to a level that won't make your beer taste like Band-Aids.

Everything you used that came in contact with the souring component of that beer will need to be kept separate or get the superdooper sanitation with bleach. And that includes the bottles or kegs you put the beer in.

If getting other stuff to do your other beers in is affordable and you have the space to store everything, then you can keep them separate. And just do your normal sanitizing routine.

Of course like the normal sanitation we do, its just mitigation of risks. You might get away with just a good cleaning and your normal procedures for reusing that stuff.

However my sour beer did cause a few issues. I had gushers with a batch of beer afterward. Bleach bombing everything solved that.

 

[Snuffy]

Have any of you guys ever used this? https://cellarscience.com/products/acid-dry-beer-yeast

I'll take that as a no.