Hey guys, so I did a 'sour mash' extract berliner where I soured the wort for a few days with crushed grains. I then pitched wyeast kolche , the smack pack was fully swollen. I pitched a tad high At 75 but it's Since down to 68. The problem is after 48hrs there is no activity I popped the lif on the bucket and nothing is doing. I'm concerned the wort may be too acidic or I pitched too hot. 75 is in the safe zone according to wyeast though. Any suggestions? I've tried agitating the bucket a few times but nothing yet. Should I try to signicigicantly lower the temps?
Did you happen to take any gravity readings prior? I made a sour mash berliner and my OG was around 1.030. It was pretty acidic and when I pitched the White Labs Kolsch yeast it just made a few bubbles after a few days. Not a particularly "active" fermentation, but the gravity did drop steadily.
This has happened with my prior sour mash fermentations, and it was freaky intially, tho they have always turned out fine. I'm not sure if the low pH affects logrithmic yeast growth or krausen formation, etc. Mine usually get very turbid without a proper krausen or much airlock activity. I'd just wait it out and check the gravity a week or so after pitching. The yeast should drop out somewhat. What was the OG? It should finish pretty fast if it's a usual Berliner original gravity. I usually use US-05, btw.
The 0G was about 1.028, I do have a spare pack of us-05 and im very tempted to toss it in. Im not sure how mixing yeasts would turn out its just weird to see such little activity Ive never had this issue before.
its at 1.011 so I guess it is doing something, its just very strange the beer still looks stale. I tasted it when I checked the gravity and doesnt really taste like its been fermented but its really sour so I dunno. I was expecting 1.007 so I guess Ill give it more time and see if it gets down to there.
Did you check the gravity after the sour mash? In my experience and from what I've researched, when lactic acid is being produced, it's eating the sugars, lowering the gravity, but importantly, it's not creating alcohol (well it might be, but we don't know for sure because we don't know exactly what's on the grain). After I sour mash, I typically do a small boil and add some DME to boost my gravity, kill the lacto, and then I pitch my yeast. Also, I don't necessarily see a krausen with my Kolsch yeast. I'd just trust your gravity readings and not worry about airlock activity or krausen or looks or anything.
It did not occur to me check the gravity after souring :-/ could I make a small wort and blend it in or you think I should just ride it out?
