Berliner time.. Bring me your best.

Your right, but we weren't talking about sour mashing.. Mashing like normal, and then souring the wort.

 

Yeah, holding the temp would be harder for just souring the wort, versus souring the mash. Especially if you hold your mash in a cooler.

The downside of doing it with the mash, IMO, is the possibly issue with getting the wrong kind of funk going on. If you get it right, it's pretty easy to repeat. But you'll need to make sure you keep most 02 out, cover it with saranwrap, and hold the temp.

Thats why I did a sour wort, but I went an extra step and made it a bit easier, without needing any extra equipment. I didn't care to keep it heated with a band or blanket. So I left it at the ambient 70* that I could maintain. I purged it with co2, and then used seltzer water for the two times I checked on the sourness. I had NO funky or disgusting aromas that you'd get from a sour mash.

I don't have time during the week to brew. So I do it on the weekends. My method, allowed me to take the wort from Sunday, till Saturday to sour, and then do a quick boil on it. Worked great for me, and I was able to repeat it again, same schedule, and get pretty much the same taste.

 

Yeah, no problem. There's a bunch of ideas people have tossed out in the thread.. It's become more of a tips and tricks thread to berliners now. I'm happy with it.

 

So you used uncrushed acid malt to sour it?

Interesting it.. Curious if it'll help you sour faster since the malt is already soured with lacto, but ALL grain has lacto on it anyways.

EDIT:

Here's a pic of the one I'm drinking today.

 

Sure.

Buy some bottled plain seltzer water. Top off the fermenter with a little bit of it. The high carbonation will help flush much of the o2 from the headspace, to atleast minimize any issues.

 

So the acid malt you added to the wort was crushed?

For the future, I'd just keep it whole, much easier to strain out, and doesn't really help any to crush it.

I understand using it in the mash, I was asking about you using it in the wort to pitch the natural lacto on the grain.

 

Also, in terms of head retention, my two brews have had really nice heads on them, great lacing. I can't recall what the pH was for them though off the top of my head.

 

You can use the hose from your kegerator, put it in the carboy and turn it on, and flush the headspace for a couple seconds. You can use a wand or something. I used my beer gun, and just purged co2 into the carboy, since I have it hooked up to a manifold in my keezer anyways, just a flip of a valve.

If you don't have a co2 bottle, you can use seltzer water. Doesn't need to be a ton, and it's a light and low ABV beer, so a little extra water isn't gonna hurt. Pour it in and the co2 will flush the headspace enough for extra insurance.

Or you can buy something like this, and use it to purge headspaces if you don't intend to keg, but like to do beers that benefit from lack of o2 in the headspace. Would be ideal for long aging beers, sours, and even ipas.
http://morebeer.com/products/co2-injector-w1-cartridge.html?gclid=CMaUjffs4L0CFSwV7AodsH0Ahg

 

How was the crystal in your recipe? Mine was similar, minus the crystal. More for color?