I am aware that the normal practice for sour kettling is to add uncrushed grains, but is there any downside to using crushed grains (other than the crushed grains maybe not having as much lacto on them?). I appreciate all input as usual.
Yeah, there is a down side...you never know exactly how much souring will occur until you taste it, imho
It'll work fine, but you should make a starter first and pitch that instead of just throwing grains into 5 gallons. Don't forget to take the usual precautions (lowering pH to 4.5, purging the headspace with co2).
Crushing the grains shouldn't reduce the amount of bacteria. Except for the few slow bacteria that manage to get crushed by the mill. <jk> Why should OP make a starter? FWIW, I inoculate my sour-worted Berliners using a pound of grains, in a temperature controlled (~115F), oxygen excluded keg. No problems getting the souring level I want, and no apparent contribution from unwanted bugs.
Do what @VikeMan said and you'll be good. I like using grain much better than any pure lacto strain. Don't add O2 or hops and you'll be good. But don't be super stressed about a wee bit of oxygen in the process. Also, the only problem I see with adding crushed grain, would be having a harder time avoiding sucking up the small grain pieces during transfer(depending on how you do it).
Thanks for the input. I've had it sitting in my 90 degree garage, airtight, and wrapped in a blanket since Monday. I'll post some pics Friday when I bring this brew back to a boil. Plan is to boil off all potential unwanted bugs, add an oz of hallertau, cool down and pitch WL's Berliner weisse blend as well as a WL's Sour Belgian blend.
What type of beer are you trying to make? If you just want a nice quick sour, all I'd do is add some yeast(saison, 05, a good attenuator) after your boil, ferment as usual and drink it. It's much cheaper too, without those fancy yeast blends.
I've done the grain method three times now. They've all turned out nice and sour, but each time I get a little something on the nose that doesn't quite fit. I'm not sure how to describe it...maybe a hint of straw smell? I don't know if adding a more pure lacto strain would help that or not. I dry-hopped my last sour with an ounce of Citra to try to combat that smell.
Don't use the White Labs Berliner blend unless you want it to be more like a sour saison...WL uses a saison yeast instead of a clean fermenting yeast and I think it super sucks as a Berliner blend... Wyeast on the other hand uses a German ale yeast in theirs and produces an incredible Berliner IMO! I can make a nicely tart Berliner in a little over a month by brewing as normal (I actually never boil my Berliners, I do the no boil Berliner from Milk The Funk...just mash and then bring the temp to somewhere over 180 then chill to 120 and toss in fermenter with the Wyeast Berliner blend and a shot of Good belly) and ferementing over 80.
