I've seen a few posts about using sourdough starter to ferment beer and I have a few questions.
The first is that after reading the Wikipedia page on sourdough (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough#Type_I_sourdough) I have concerns about the ability of a true sourdough starter to even ferment wort. Candida cannot digest maltose, but Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis can? But it produces acetic acid in the presence of fructose? Any microbiologists able to chime in?
This leads to my second question: what actually does the fermentation in cases where people are successful with their sourdough fermented beer? People report flavors that I would associate with S. cerevisiae but that shouldn't be present in a starter more than a couple days old...
Thirdly, has anyone tried adding a brewing sacromyces strain in addition to the sourdough and what were those results?
Obviously I'll need to make a test batch myself but I was interested in this community's input first.
Y'all have waaaaay more experience then I do!
The first is that after reading the Wikipedia page on sourdough (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough#Type_I_sourdough) I have concerns about the ability of a true sourdough starter to even ferment wort. Candida cannot digest maltose, but Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis can? But it produces acetic acid in the presence of fructose? Any microbiologists able to chime in?
This leads to my second question: what actually does the fermentation in cases where people are successful with their sourdough fermented beer? People report flavors that I would associate with S. cerevisiae but that shouldn't be present in a starter more than a couple days old...
Thirdly, has anyone tried adding a brewing sacromyces strain in addition to the sourdough and what were those results?
Obviously I'll need to make a test batch myself but I was interested in this community's input first.
Y'all have waaaaay more experience then I do!
