[daschey]

I am going to attempt to brew the Gose recipe from the March/April 2015 edition of Zymurgy, and had a couple of questions.

1. Do I need to worry about contamination to my tubing, bottling bucket and racking cane when I go to bottle / keg the gose using the lactic acid it asks to be added at bottling?  Should I buy new and give the old ones to sour brewing?

2. Is there anything to worry about using the acid malts in a cooler mash tun? 

I just don't want to contaminate a system that has been making great beer for me.

[kramerog]

Nope and nope.  If you were using wild bugs then yes to 1, but you are using lactic acid.

[mabrungard]

Remember, these are organisms that can die too. The reason they are a big problem in pro breweries is that their equipment is harder to take apart and effectively decontaminate. For most of our equipment, we can soak it in a variety of sanitizers or we can invoke the boil option. With respect to the problem of plastics and tubing, the boil option is pretty effective.

You don't need to worry about the mash tun since it is always infected with something. You sanitize the resulting wort for all your beers in the kettle, so even if there was something infectious in the tun, you would knock it out.

By the way, I kettle soured my wort batch and then boiled it. Then it went into the fermenter for a normal yeast ferment. The resulting beer was infected only with the typical yeast that most beer is.

[klickitat jim]

Regarding the mash tun, we all dump multiple pounds of "infected" grain in there every time we make wort.

[erockrph]

In looking at the recipe, there's no actual lactobacillus used for souring. It calls for saurmalz in the mash, then salt and lacto to taste at bottling. Given that recipe there is zero chance for infection.

[brewinhard]

+1.  Acid malt and lactic acid (even added at bottling) will not infect any plastic or porous equipment as they are not living cells. 

[duboman]

In looking at the recipe, there's no actual lactobacillus used for souring. It calls for saurmalz in the mash, then salt and lacto to taste at bottling. Given that recipe there is zero chance for infection.

+1
No problem but if you are willing, I would suggest actually using Lactobacillus to sour, the flavor profile you achieve will be far superior and its not a difficult process to a true Gose

[mabrungard]

Agree! The flavor profile is even more interesting when you use the 'handful of grain' method of innoculating a starter to produce a sour. Then you are getting a wide variety of organisms that are finally dominated by lactobacillus. Just remember that this starter must be propagated under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions or there is a good possibility that your starter will grow 'funky' organisms that you may not prefer in your beer.

I find that using the lacto starters from either Wyeast or White can be somewhat one-dimensional, so the handful of grain method is my preference.

By the way, if you create this starter, you can verify that you have produced a predominantly lactic culture by smelling and tasting the starter. It should be pleasantly tart and smooth. Be aware that the culture can go through some nasty smelling periods, but let it go and eventually the lactic bacteria will win and the starter should turn tart and smooth. Keep the air-lock on the starter until you can smell the right aroma.  PS: you also have to perform your mash or wort souring in an anaerobic condition or you will get too much funky, non-lactic character in the beer.     

[duboman]

Agree! The flavor profile is even more interesting when you use the 'handful of grain' method of innoculating a starter to produce a sour. Then you are getting a wide variety of organisms that are finally dominated by lactobacillus. Just remember that this starter must be propagated under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions or there is a good possibility that your starter will grow 'funky' organisms that you may not prefer in your beer.

I find that using the lacto starters from either Wyeast or White can be somewhat one-dimensional, so the handful of grain method is my preference.

By the way, if you create this starter, you can verify that you have produced a predominantly lactic culture by smelling and tasting the starter. It should be pleasantly tart and smooth. Be aware that the culture can go through some nasty smelling periods, but let it go and eventually the lactic bacteria will win and the starter should turn tart and smooth. Keep the air-lock on the starter until you can smell the right aroma.  PS: you also have to perform your mash or wort souring in an anaerobic condition or you will get too much funky, non-lactic character in the beer.   

+1 but I make it even more simple, without a lacto starter culture. I simply pitch the pack into the wort which has been boiled for 15 minutes and then cooled to 90oF. I hole the wort at 90 for 5 days and it sours to 3.8-4.0 pH, then follow with a traditional boil and hops, etc.

Yes, it produces some funky smells and raises eyebrows from my kids! The beer is pleasantly tart and very refreshing!

Martin, I might try the handful of grain method on the next batch and compare, sounds interesting indeed:)