making sours

[one_dead_soul]

i want to get into making some sour beers and had a few questions. my local homebrew shop owner uses a turbid mash when he makes his so that he can get a bunch of starches into the beer to feed the bugs. i know how to do a turbid mash.. read up on it a bunch. but i don't do all grain yet. ( i just need a damn false bottom for my keg.. wich will be a few more months to get i'm sure) what do you guys do? just let the bugs eat whatever the yeast didn't? i know that what JZ says he does. would adding startches help though? could i just get some unmalted wheat and boil it for a bit to get them. or should i not bother? thanks guys

tom

[DBear]

I sure folks on this forum will have answers but you can also check out http://www.babblebelt.com - they are into bugs.

-Cheers

[Jims]

I don't think that is necessary. I use a higher mash temp (156) then ferment with cal ale till 2/3 of my expected attenuation happens. I transfer to a five gallon carboy then I pitch my bugs. I cover with a carboy cap and let it go. Turns out pretty good. I haven't done this enough to really comment on consistency, but it tastes good.

[HopRunner]

Ive been working my way through the book Wild Brews. Very interesting and kind of confusing. The book isn't really a "How to Brew Wild Brews" but more of a history and science lesson. I am fascinated by it though.

I am just starting down this path.

[wezil]

I think a turbid mash helps but is probably not enough to amount to the work it takes. I tend to use a higher mash temp 156-158F. And I pitch everything at once. My best results have come from a used 12gal wine barrel that I got from a homewine maker.

Brad

[Tom from Raleigh]

I'm too much of a lazy bastard to do a turbid mash. I brewed a lambic earlier this year and used flaked wheat and pils malt. I used a high mash temp, sparged with boiling water and added a 1/4 lb of maltodextrin, all to feed the bugs. I made a Berliner Weisse from the second runnings of the lambic. It started at 1.028 and I'm really happy with it.

One thing, though, don't depend on Wyeast or White Labs for bugs. Pitch the dregs of your favorite sour beer into your fermenter. I built a starter for my lambic from Cantillon dregs. I like 'em sour.

Your best resource is babblebelt.com

[one_dead_soul]

should i make a starter if i'm using dregs? or just toss em in?

tom

[HopRunner]

should i make a starter if i'm using dregs? or just toss em in?

tom

I'd like to know the correct answer to this also. I'm thinking that you can't make a starter for a bacterial culture, or if you did it would take months to develop?? I think just pitch directly into the primary or secondary is the normal method.

The other question. What dregs? I've been drinking Rodenbach and a couple of different Flanders style beers and haven't noticed any dregs in the bottles. If you read my Chaos Brewing thread in the Recipes and Styles section, I poured the whole bottle into the secondary hoping something was still alive in the bottle. I also dumped a vile of White Labs "Sour Mix I" into the secondary also. I'm sure my experiment in the basement is a template for how NOT to do a sour ale but I'm having fun so it's all good.