[tankdeer]

Ha ha ha. Well, at the very least it sounds interesting.

[babalu87]

Weird ass Weiss is fermenting like a bastard

[MrNate]

 Nothing beats a refreshing cup of corn squeez'ns out of a full silo though.  

Man that takes me back. Ever notice how when you remember smells it's like you're standing right there in the memory?

[dean]

Man that takes me back. Ever notice how when you remember smells it's like you're standing right there in the memory?

Yeh... this wort smells like an old barn full of sweaty horses or pigs!      

Just transferred from the MT into a carboy tonight... OG = 1.043 with no boil, my efficiency just jumped like a SOB!      Boiled a gallon with some cluster pellet hops to add back to the main wort... hope it turns out. 

[dean]

I just checked the sour mash batch its fermenting at 63 degrees, not extremely active but it has krauzen on top.  No airlock just tinfoil, I think I'm going to use tinfoil more often.

[tankdeer]

I've been using tinfoil a lot just due to laziness. It works quite well. 

[dean]

The sour smell is practically gone and it smells like an old horse saddle.  As of last night it still had a frothy krauzen on it and has me wondering how long and low brett ferments? 

I've been keeping the carboy in a tub 1/3 filled with water and putting 2L or 1 gallon jugs of ice in the water to help keep the temps down, on the 3rd and 4th mornings I found the temperature in the mid 70's.  I hope it didn't get too high.     I should have put it in the creek like I did with the saison, its actually a bit too cool for that I think.

[dean]

Update in case anybody is wondering.  I pulled a sample and tested the gravity, its at 1.014 and it still has a small foam on the top.  Smell is musky and the taste is like a slightly musky tart lemonade with pepper and finishes with a slight hint of green floral taste.  I need to find my notes on this brew, I made it before I bought beersmith so its not on my computer.  Its definitely different. 

I think I'll pull it out of the tub of water to let it finish more.  I'm a bit concerned with transferring to a secondary and over oxygenating it, should I wait for it to finish more before I transfer to secondary?

[tankdeer]

Sounds nice. Yeah, I would wait for it to finish. There's no reason to transfer early.

[SwashBuckling Drunk]

I recently (Kind Of) enjoyed a sour ale from Big Horse in Hood River.  On the notes, it says the brewer employed a sour mash to make the ale.  I have heard of sour mash four hard A, but not for brewing..   Can anyone explain this means in a beer brewing sense and the techniques used. 

I see you were in Hood River, so I assume you make it to Portland sometimes.  There's a bar in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood that "specializes" in sour beers.  It's called Raccoon Lodge http://www.raclodge.com/ .  They always have a variety of their own sour beers there and I really enjoy em.

[tankdeer]

^ Cascade brewing. They make some fantastic sour beers.

[SwashBuckling Drunk]

^ Cascade brewing. They make some fantastic sour beers.

That's them

[sutorbrew]

Should I boil this after it sours adequately?  There are no hops so far, I was thinking to at least boil a portion with some hops.

Depends on if you want it to sour further. Boiling it will have the benefit of "setting" the sourness/funkiness at whatever level it's at now. Not boiling will allow the bugs to continue working until they decide to stop.

How do I know when it is sour enough?  Taste?  The stuff has a funky smell now but its not sour.

Taste is pretty much the only way. If it's not sour enough, let it sit longer.

That is the problem with sour mashes - sometimes you get nice clean sourness, sometimes you get intense funk and no sourness, and pretty much everything in between. It's too variable for me, which is why I stopped doing it.

I'm with Tankdeer on this one. While it might be interesting to roll the dice on a sour mash if you are looking for consistently reproducible beers then making a monster lacto starter is the way to go. What has worked well for me to get my berliner out in 3 weeks (some of you might have tried at at the LAGERS booth at club night) is to make a 3-4 liter (20 gallon batch) starter of lacto a couple days ahead of time and lightly stir it on a stir plate @ 90 ish. Then do mash hopping, a single decoction and a no boil. Here is the trick I found. Only cool your wort down to the mid 90's and pitch your lacto first giving it a 8-12 hour head start before pitching the yeast. This give the little critters a big head start and you fill see an active CO2 release and can verify how far they have moved along by taking a PH reading. After that I pitch a Kolsch yeast and ferment in the mid to high 60's. You should have a nice clean sour in 3 weeks and can always secondary a little longer if you want the flavors to develop further.

[dean]

Here is a pic I took a couple of days ago, pellicle forming on top.  Its fuller now and looks like an arctic ice shelf, I'll try to get another pic today.




Just took these two pics...

[richardt]

Looks like stretch marks.