berliner (the cliff notes version)

so in my case adding some more seltzer water? would that do the trick?
im just using uncrushed grain

 

You don't have a way to re-purge, so you might run into trouble if you need to pull a samples over a few days. a more form-fitting fermentor would be a good idea.

 

^^ What he said. The smaller amount of head space, the better. OR, if you're good at not tampering with your beer, let it sour for 4-5 days, and never take the top off until it looks ready.. but that's kind of risky.

 

^^^^^^^ this?

any good way to know?

 

It's hard to say.. but I would guess that it may be too sour by that point (Sunday). If it's been 4-5 days, I'd take a peek in and check it out. It should be plenty sour by now. What's nice is, you'll only have to do a quick 10-15 min boil, and chill/pitch the yeast. I love how you can split a sour worted beer up into 2 separate, smaller brew days.

 

Cool! Yea, 4-5 days at 80-85º F gave me that 'unsweetened lemonade' kind of sour.. if it gets too sour, then you risk the pH getting too low, and your yeast will struggle to ferment fully.

 

im curious... if it does get to sour is there a way to add more sweetness (ie add sugar in boil) and cut the sourness and give the yeast some more food?

 

I don't think it works that way, but I could be wrong. I actually don't know a whole lot about acidity/pH in brewing, but this is a good read if you want to look further into it:

https://byo.com/hops/item/1493-the-power-of-ph

 

Mine end up clear (despite the no-boil), but that's usually with three months in the fermentor and a couple in the bottle.

 

Mine have been pretty hazy even with a decent amount of time in the keg or bottle. I can't think of great reasons for that. Maybe commercial lacto produces a clearer beer?

 

well.... i brewed sunday night and just did my first test and..... it was excellent!
nice pale yellow, cloudy, with a really tangy acidic sour to it. im gonna leave it till saturday or sunday night for the boil and hope it will get a little more sour. then on to some strawberries and maybe hibiscus

super stoked!

 

i guess this question is best for @OldSock and you other wild brewers:
after doing some reading i've seen that wild yeasts can develop on fruit and things in secondary.
i was planning on doing a short boil to kill the lacto and keep all of my equipment clean and bug free.
if i add fruit am i taking a chance of contaminating my equipment?

 

I've added fruit to sours and non-sours, without any problems. If fresh, I rinse, freeze and thaw it, and add it to secondary. If already frozen, I just thaw it and add to secondary. No boiling, pasteurization, or starsan. YMMV.

 

Agreed, there is some risk, but it isn't huge. Most wild yeast aren't suited to thrive in fermented beer, the pH, alcohol, and hops all contribute preservation. Sour beers are riskier because they contain microbes suited to beer.

 

ok so i boiled for a half hour and pitched us-05 to my 2.5 gallon batch last night.
my question is that before i soured the wort my gravity was 1040 and last night post boil was 1020.
is that normal? i vaguely remember someone saying that the low ph throws off the hydrometer reading, is that correct?