Yeast for a Gose

The Brett Lambicus might not be the best choice IMO. It's probably got pedio in it as well as some other stuff.

I would actually look to do a sour wort, or sour mash, have it sour to your liking, then I would boil it, add your salt, and then pitch a clean yeast, or a german strain of your choice to finish the bill. That, or if you want simple but maybe wait it out, look for a WLP berliner blend, or a ECY berliner. Those will have everything packaged in one that you'll need, although they'll take longer, but will have a temp range you can work with.

If you want the brett, could pitch that alongside the sach strain and be done with it.

Would also speed up the process of getting this beer, as the Lambic blend will take you a long damn while, unless thats on your time table.

 

Sour wort would be you mashing like normal, then placing the wort into your kettle, or your fermenter, and pitching some grain. Keeping it at room temp or higher, allowing the natural lacto to sour the wort. Hotter=faster. Taking care to make sure you don't have much oxygen present while doing so. Check out some threads on here and elsewhere about sour wort methods.

Once it's sour enough, anywhere from 2-3 days to a week, you boil it. It kills the lacto, locks in your sour level, and you can treat it as any other beer going forward, and won't have lacto all over your brewhouse.

No need for a lacto culture as they are usually blends in most cases. The grain is covered in lactobacillus anyways.

You'd ideally be making a berliner, and then adding salt and your spicing, like coriander for a gose. Ferment with a clean strain, or a german wheat strain even. I think WY1010 would be great, as would US05.

 

Recent recipe I read called for lacto to sour the worrt, and german alt.

 

You can use the lacto and see if it gets you where you want. Grain wise, I'd think a good handful, but if you need a number, I'd say 4-8 ounces is if PLENTY!

Kettle would be fine, but the aluminum might not be the best idea for something that will be getting acidic, but you might be okay. Open air.. debatable. If you are doing the kettle, I'd suggest some seran wrap over the top, and maybe purging headspace with co2, or use some seltzer water if you don't have a co2 bottle or something. If you get too much oxygen in there, the beer COULD turn out to smell like a dirty diaper and/or vomit.

I'd say if you had a carboy you could get it in, and make it where the headspace is almost topped up.

 

You know.. an actual time table won't really be accurate, unless you've done it a couple times and maintain the same parameters each time.

3 days at that temp.. It'll be tart, if I had to guess. I would say 4-5 days, it would probably be within the realm of being sour. Taste is subjective. I did 6 days at 70* and was happy with what I got. It could be more sour, for me, but for everyone else they love it.

I would try to find a way to taste it. Grab a wine thief, every brewer should have one anyways. Or sanitize a turkey baster and pull a small sample, then purge the headspace when you close it up. Sounds like you are on your way to a good Gose there.

 

I am enjoying the back and forth between you two...EgadBananas, let us know how everything turns out. I'd like to brew a gose as well, somewhere in the near future. My next two batches are going to be a ginger saison and a citrus bomb of an IPA. Cheers and good luck, hope it turns out well.

 

Yeah, good job on the headspace there. It's about perfect.

Here's a tip to purge the headspace. Take your sample, and then grab a bottle of seltzer water. Plain, purified water. Pour some in there, and it'll fizz up and purge the oxygen out well enough for you to seal it up and call it done.

If it's only tart, let it go some more. Lets be honest, once you get into sours, the more sour the better. Tart will only piss you off! Keeping in mind, the wort will taste sweetish, as it's unfermented wort. So keep that in mind tasting it. I'd let it go a couple more days and see how it comes out. Once you think it's close enough to what you want, boil away and slightly hop it.

I myself, would spice it with a little coriander along with the salt.

 

Yeasts: Kolsch, Cream ale blend, Cry Havoc, US-05, San Fran Lager are all ones I have seen used. Great Thread.

 

For my gose, I used Wyeast 3056 Bavarian wheat blend, with acidulated malt to give me the sour (cheating, I know). If I do it again, I'd like to use the Weihenstephaner yeast with maybe a secondary to sour -- not sure what yeast I'd use for that yet.

One thing to remember ... a little salt goes a really long way. Learned that the hard way.

 

Salt is definitely tricky. Here is what @OldSock did, and here are his tasting notes. He used 1/2 ounce of sea salt in 5 gallons, and didn't think it was quite salty enough. When I recently brewed a gose, I used 1/2 ounce of sea salt in a little over 3 gallons, and I would say it was about right, but maybe not salty enough for some people. Maybe an ounce in 5 gallons would be about right, if you really want to notice the salt. I think Brewing With Wheat calls for almost half an ounce per gallon, which based on my experience would be incredibly salty. So you would definitely notice it!

 

I can't do this with my equipment, but if you can keep temps between 110-120*F during the sour mash, the Lacto will be happiest this way. For me, even with a daily temperature drop and rise, I can still get a pretty sour wort, but I do try to stay well above room temps as best as possible.

 

Of course, but I've found that for my time table, keeping it at 70-75 for 6-7 days, I get an extremely sour wort that works for me to boil it on the next weekend.

Heat is best, but it speeds up the process is all.

 

Yes, and temps in the 110-120* range also helps to keep unwanted bugs at bay.

Cheers!