Sour Mash: Separate Equipment?

[mk78]

So I'm looking into doing a bit of a sour mash for a couple upcoming batches. For soured beers where you actually pitch bugs after the boil, some folks recommend using separate plastic equipment for those batches.

Is there any concern with that for a sour mash? I'm guessing no, since it's gonna get boiled anyway, but figured I'd ask since y'all will know better than I. Thanks in advance folks!

 

[rtt121]

Not sure of the exact answer here, but I recenlty read a thread that I liked (and of course cant find).

Instead of souring the mash in the mash tun someone had mashed and lautered like normal into a seperate bucket (3 dollar homer buckets are perfect because you can just toss them afterward if you are worried about future infections), from there he just threw a handful of grain in to sour the wort.

Seems to me a better way of keeping equipment clean.

Edit: I peeked my own interest as I thought the post was a good read. I found it, it was on another site.

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=29637&st=0

 

[mk78]

Nice, thanks for the good read.

The poster did say "I kept the wort in my kettle as it was souring. I did not want to possibly infect anything in my brew-works with the lacto-bugs. I figured the boil would eventually kill everything in the kettle off...The real benefit that I see (aside from the time concern, which is a biggie for me), is that there is no, nada, zip chance of getting a persistent lacto or pedo infection in one's brew-works from this method."

I think that's what I was looking for. I'm probably going to end up doing the same thing, just souring in a pot. Thanks rtt!

 

[rtt121]

Your welcome. I couldnt remember how he did it exactly. I always try to throw a homer bucket into my process where it isnt necessary.. haha. If doing it in the kettle I would add the grains in a hop bag or something so you can yank em out easy.

 

[mk78]

Yeah, that makes sense. Probably only doing something like 10% sour, so that should work just fine. I'm excited for some tangy beers!

 

[chefmike]

You can sour mash in your normal mash tun. Like you said: you boil it after so no worries. It is only post boil that you would need to be careful.

I have done the kentucky common. Good threads here on it. search for them. Mine was a 40 hour mash, IIRC.

 

[mk78]

How'd the KC turn out? Never had one myself, so I wouldn't be sure what to expect. But I do like anything sour/tangy.

 

[KYB]

I've done a number of sour mashes in my cooler mash tun. Hell I've even brewed beers with only rinsing it with water after the brew day, all which came out great.

I was doing 24hr mashes with the Kentucky Common, however, after further research I don't believe this was typical of the style. I love sour beers, but I prefer my Kentucky Common to not be anymore, and to just be clean and crisp.

 

[chefmike]

Hell I've even brewed beers with only rinsing it with water after the brew day, all which came out great.

thats all I ever do with my mash tun. Spray it out, run water through the false bottom and dry it out.


So same recipe on the kentucky common, but no extended mash? I will have to hit up your blog.

 

[KYB]

thats all I ever do with my mash tun. Spray it out, run water through the false bottom and dry it out.


So same recipe on the kentucky common, but no extended mash? I will have to hit up your blog.

It's down. Still tweaking. Using Black Patent, C120, and American Ale fermented 60-64 max. 90min mash.

 

[pdxal]

My sour beer method is to mash in the brew pot (I do brew in a bag), then cool to 130 and throw in a handful of raw malt, cover with foil on liquid/mash surface and lid on pot, put on a heating pad to maintain 100-120 for a couple of days before heating to 170 to mash out, remove the bag of grains and proceed as usual with the boil.
No infections, all bugs in the beer are killed before fermentation so the level of sourness does not change, and there are no bottle bombs.

 

[devilishprune]

I use the same tun for everything after I did a sour mash in it. Your grains are covered with lacto anyway, that's how the sour mash gets started. Granted, during a sour mash you culture them for longer in there, but I wouldn't think it would matter. I just rinsed the tun out afterwards and haven't had any issues with the batches I made since then.

 

[mk78]

Awesome. Thanks to everyone that chimed in. I think my next batch is gonna get a bit of sour mash. Boom.