sour mash tips?

[theother1]

I've been looking to get into sour beers but the store I work at doesn't have any bacterial strains and heard good things about sour mashes as an alternative. Anyone have any tips?

 

[pdxal]

No bacteria strains? Sorry to hear that, I'd think they could at least order them from Wyeast of White Labs.
I've sour mashed a half dozen times, with success. IMHO the best way is to mash, cool the entire mash to around 100-120 and pitch in some raw grain, hold at 100ish for 24-48 hours, depending upon how sour you like your beer, then sparge and boil as you usually would to kill the bugs and fix the sourness. 50/50 barley and wheat, sour mashed as I mentioned, and boiled and hopped to 5-10 IBUs makes a great Berliner Weisse. You can always add fruit later in primary/secondary too.

 

[theother1]

thank you much ill have to give this a shot next time. ill post my results

 

[wonderbread23]

I've had great success with sour mashed Berliner Weisse. The key is controlling the variables of heat, O2, and pH to encourage the bacterial growth you want, and discourage what you don't want.

I've outlined tips here:
http://www.thepourreport.com/berliner-weisse-recipe-and-brewday/

 

[theother1]

Much appreciated!