Steer me in the right direction (Sour)

It might work, but it isn’t how I’ve had good results brewing Berliners. I’d separate the spent grain from the wort, add 88% lactic acid to lower the pH to ~4.5 (to reduce protein destruction) and then pitch a known/aggressive culture of Lactobacillus (e.g., L. brevis or L. plantarum). I just don’t want the risk associated with wild Lactobacillus (plus whatever else joins it from the grain). After it soured close to where I wanted (12-48 hours), I’d lower the temperature and pitch the US-05 and dregs (Tank 7 doesn't have Brett as far as I'm aware, Saison Brett would). Pitching yeast/dregs into the sour mash will result in one of two things: dead yeast, or some pretty weird flavors.

 

nailed it

 

Agree with Mike. You can grab a Good Belly shot or drink and pitch it to get the L. plantarum, it will even do its work at room temp.

 

According to this thread, you're also getting champagne yeast: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...n-splitting-in-secondary.344806/#post-4163010

 

I know this comes late in the sour mashing / kettle souring that happened last week - but don't you need a boil to kill the wild bugs and allow the sacc yeast to do the fermenting? I thought without a boil the lacto will keep going and continue to sour the beer beyond what most people desire. Am I wrong? I'd love to be corrected if I am.

Also, from what I know (I may not know anything), the point of doing a sour mash was to have a "fast fermentation" sour as you would get the sourness you want upfront and allow the sacc to do the majority of the fermentation on a normal schedule.

At any rate, I did a rye berliner a year ago and it has been one of my best brews to date. I haven't re-brewed it yet because of the difficulties of replicating a sour mash beer.

 

Brett/Sacch isn't going to thrive at 120F, and will likely be killed. 105F is as warm as I'd ever expose yeast to (rehydrating dried yeast for example), and almost always will do it's best fermentation cooler than that still.