sour mash?

[Pdaigle]

can someone explain what is a sour mash. I get the most of it the only part is during the mash do I lauter or just wait and add in my sparge water without lautering. Usually I do a mash in for 60 min and lauter and then add my sparge water rest for 15-20 and then lauter again.

What am I missing for sour mash?

 

[kadozen]

From what I understand, you do it one of several ways. You would do your normal mash then let it cool to the 100 or so degrees and either pitch lacto or use uncrushed grain and hold it. At this point if you can hold it at 100 for the 1-4 days you would then sparge. If it doesn't hold the temp, some will hit it with more hot water to raise it back to the 100. If they keep adding water to keep the temp up they skip the sparge.
I haven't done this yet, so someone more experienced could further clarify, but those are the 2 methods I keep seeing over and over for the sour mash.

 

[burnsie8791]

You mash normally let the mash cool to between 100 and 125 and sour. After souring is complete (1-3 days) you sparge normally and do a quick boil, usually 15 minutes, chill and pitch yeast. I did a Berliner three times last summer and did a sour mash using uncrushed gains to sour.The beer came out different each time, the first beer was amazing the other two were good. Same process used for all three. Using uncrushed grains can be a crap shoot but does get results. If you do a sour mash you should limit oxygen contact with the mash. Most purge with co2 and put sanitized plastic wrap over the top of the grain bed. I have a fermentor that I used to hold the temp to 125 for two to three days, maintaining temp is the biggest challenge. Im considering using the same process this year but pitching lacto directly to the mash instead of the uncrushed gains, manily for consistency sake.

 

[Pdaigle]

You mash normally let the mash cool to between 100 and 125 and sour. After souring is complete (1-3 days) you sparge normally and do a quick boil, usually 15 minutes, chill and pitch yeast. I did a Berliner three times last summer and did a sour mash using uncrushed gains to sour.The beer came out different each time, the first beer was amazing the other two were good. Same process used for all three. Using uncrushed grains can be a crap shoot but does get results. If you do a sour mash you should limit oxygen contact with the mash. Most purge with co2 and put sanitized plastic wrap over the top of the grain bed. I have a fermentor that I used to hold the temp to 125 for two to three days, maintaining temp is the biggest challenge. Im considering using the same process this year but pitching lacto directly to the mash instead of the uncrushed gains, manily for consistency sake.

so boil the wort 15min instead of 60min? is there a reason for that?

 

[martyjhuebs]

Normally you boil the wort for 15min to kill the Lacto infection. This helps keep the rest of your equipment from getting "bugged." A 60 min boil isnt really necessary since sour beers are typically Low ABV. The 2 things you are looking for is the death of Lacto and your hop additions.

 

[burnsie8791]

Normally you boil the wort for 15min to kill the Lacto infection. This helps keep the rest of your equipment from getting "bugged." A 60 min boil isnt really necessary since sour beers are typically Low ABV. The 2 things you are looking for is the death of Lacto and your hop additions.

What ^ he said

 

[bknifefight]

I made a picture-heavy tutorial on how I sour mash with wild lacto from the grain husks:
http://www.hazardhomebrewing.org/2013/03/25/how-to-sour-mash/