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Wort Souring

734 bytes added, 16:51, 21 February 2018
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* Use a Brew Belt Fermentation Heating Belt and wrap a "hoody" sweater or some other fabric around it to insulate, and a temperature controller.
* Use an aquarium heater (Enheim brand recommended), fill a large plastic cooler with water and keep the water warm with the aquarium heater. Set the souring vessel in the cooler.
* Use an [http://anovaculinary.com/ Anova sous vide device] - place the vessel in a larger vessel with water, and keep the heat applied to the outside water with the Anova. Works well for maintaining heat for starters too. * Similar to the Anova, James Spenser of [http://basicbrewing.com/ BasicBrewing.com] video on using an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bquf6EhRe5Q InstantPot® to maintain "yogurt" temperatures for 1 gallon batches].
* Build an insulation box out of Styrofoam. See [https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1429055690455974/?comment_id=1429072997120910&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D this MTF post] and [https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1429055690455974/?comment_id=1429344713760405&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R4%22%7D this MTF post].
* Sour in a keg, and heat the keg. If the keg is not fitted with a [http://seanterrill.com/2015/06/25/build-a-better-spunding-valve/ spunding valve] or an airlock, be sure to burp the keg in case of an accidental yeast contamination as that would result in a lot of built up pressure. See [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207497057613773&set=p.10207497057613773&type=3&permPage=1 this MTF post].
===How to Pre-Acidify===
[[File:Mark Horsley Foam.jpg|thumb|300px|[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1145033525524860/ Photo provided by Mark Horsley. Left is a 5.30 pH wort and the right is a 4.75pH wort. Both were kettle soured with ''L. delbrueckii''. Both reached 3.30 pH post ferment with finishing gravity of 1.7 Plato.]]]
 
:''Note: pre-acidifying applies to the wort that will become the batch of sour beer, '''not''' Lactobacillus starters. Pre-acidifying a Lactobacillus starter will slow the growth of the Lactobacillus in a starter. The idea of the starter is to grow an effective amount of cells while pre-acidifying the main batch of wort aims to inhibit contaminating microbes and retain foam positive proteins. See [[Lactobacillus#Samuel_Aeschlimann.27s_Starter_Procedures|''Lactobacillus'' starters]] for more information.''
After the production of the wort, but before pitching the culture of ''Lactobacillus'', some brewers like to slightly lower the pH of the wort with food grade lactic acid (available at homebrew stores) or phosphoric acid before adding the ''Lactobacillus''. Pre-acidifying wort can be applied to any wort souring method in general, and while using any species/source of ''Lactobacillus'' including lab cultures, probiotics, yogurt, grains, sauerkraut, etc. Acidifying the wort before pitching ''Lactobacillus'' has several benefits, such as discouraging unwanted microbes that may have accidentally been introduced into the wort, and helping to prevent [[Lactobacillus#Foam_Degradation|''Lactobacillus'' from degrading foam proteins]]. There have also been observations by Jeff Mello of [[Bootleg Biology]] and others that pre-acidification results in a lower final pH than if pre-acidification is not applied (this pH difference is not explained by the addition of acid because pH is logarithmic; see [https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1925483400813198/ this MTF thread]). The idea is to get the wort down to a pH of 4.0 - 4.4 before adding ''Lactobacillus''.

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