1. You need Untappd for Business. Get a demo, get a $25 gift card. It's that easy.
    Dismiss Notice

Absent-mindedly mashed in all my grain without reserving a handful for a sour mash. Alternatives?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Brewing my first Berliner Weisse today using a sour mash. I knew that I needed to reserve some grain to add when the temp got below 120F, but I dumped it all in the mash-tun anyway. Must've been on auto-pilot. What are my alternatives? Do I just mash over night and by a pack of lactobacillus tomorrow or is there a grain in my pantry I can use. I have steel cut oatmeal and brown rice. Would either of those work? Thanks for the help.
     
    #1 hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012
  2. Patrick

    Patrick Initiate (0) Aug 13, 2007 Massachusetts

    You don't have any dust from the grain left?
     
    #2 Patrick, Mar 9, 2012
  3. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Nah, it was milled at the LHBS and brought home in a plastic bag with smooth edges. It seems I was pretty efficient with my dumping unfortunately. Besides the bag is at the bottom of a trash can along with food waste.
     
    #3 hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012
  4. Patrick

    Patrick Initiate (0) Aug 13, 2007 Massachusetts

    Do you have any barley lying around, like the stuff you would put in soup? Would rice have lacto on it as well? These are questions because I have no idea if those are viable alternatives or not. I think some people have added yogurt before as well, but again, not sure how well they fared.
     
    #4 Patrick, Mar 9, 2012
  5. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Not sure if the rice lacto. I was hoping someone with better microbiology knowledge than myself would know the answer to that. No barley on hand, but it would seem the steel cut oats would be as close to barley as I could get at the moment. Again my microbiology knowledge is limited though.
     
    #5 hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012
  6. Patrick

    Patrick Initiate (0) Aug 13, 2007 Massachusetts

    Check out this link:

    http://www.highonhealth.org/why-its-very-important-to-soak-oats-before-you-eat-them/

    Says something about when you soak oats it allows lacto to do some stuff. That would be enough to convince me to sour the mash with some oats.
     
    #6 Patrick, Mar 9, 2012
  7. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    #7 hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012
  8. Patrick

    Patrick Initiate (0) Aug 13, 2007 Massachusetts

    Good luck!
     
    #8 Patrick, Mar 9, 2012
  9. KevinBrewer

    KevinBrewer Initiate (0) Nov 18, 2008 California

    #9 KevinBrewer, Mar 9, 2012
  10. Drazzamatazz

    Drazzamatazz Initiate (0) Sep 8, 2009 Maine

    I've tried some positive results from people using yogurt starter cultures. I'd probably not want to introduce any actual yogurt; dairy is not something I like to find in my beer.
     
    #10 Drazzamatazz, Mar 9, 2012
  11. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,540) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    When I did mine I didn't add any grains to the mash, I just cooled it down to 115*F and let her go for 22 hours. It soured her up just fine.
     
    #11 jbakajust1, Mar 9, 2012
  12. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Update: the oats did the trick! Mash is nice and sour. Pretty simple beer to make really. Very glad I decided to do this and can't wait to see how it turns out in a month!
     
    #12 hopsbreath, Mar 9, 2012
    Patrick and jbakajust1 like this.
  13. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,540) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    2 questions...
    Did you get any off smells (vomit, baby diaper, rotting garbage)?
    Where's the hockey mask (didn't even realize who I was responding to until now)?
     
    #13 jbakajust1, Mar 9, 2012
  14. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,145) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Kind of hard to actually describe the smell the mash had. Definitely different than a traditional "clean" mash but also not a pure lacto profile like I'm used to in a commercial berliner. Probably a little off-putting garbage smell at this point but I'll probably need to make my way through a few batches before I can tell better. The wort tastes as good as I hoped so there might be hope for me yet. It was a fun brew at the very least so at least it wasn't a total loss one way or the other! Tasty beer is a bonus at this point but we'll just have to wait and see in a month.

    If by Jason mask you're referring to my old avatar, with the new update larger pics can be plugged in. I figured I'd go for a real pic of myself instead of the Watchmen's Rorschach mask I was rocking previously. That's the Upright tasting room in the background.
     
    #14 hopsbreath, Mar 10, 2012
  15. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,540) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    Good to hear. If you have to search for any off aromas from the mash, they may get blown off during fermentation. Mine was fairly bad out of the mash, and the boil was 2.25 hours of nasty. The smells from the airlock were not attractive either, but it is light in the bottles now.

    Good deal. I need to get up to Upright at some point. There's a small Sports Bar near my house that frequently has 4 & 5 on tap for cheap. I'm gonna have to get used to a lot of new avatars, but the full size photos are quite nice.
     
    #15 jbakajust1, Mar 10, 2012
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.