Grains for sours/lambics etc.

[Oneiroi]

I'm a newish brewer, curious about sour/lambic/wild/etc beer styles. I wondering what the reason was for wheat and pilsner seeming to be the most common grains?

I ask because I'll be brewing a decent OG rye IPA (Denny Conns recipe - looks great!) and was toying with the idea of parti-gyling (also new to me) a second batch of low OG wort to experiment with kettle souring on.

Would a barley/rye mash work taste-wise for a sour beer? what impact might it have?

 

[JLump]

I've seen a lot of sours with rye in it. This is a really popular one. I just brewed a sour farmhouse with rye in it: http://www.bear-flavored.com/2014/06/dry-hopped-sour-farmhouse-ale-recipe.html

 

[Oneiroi]

Good to hear thanks, I've started a Lacto starter to use at the weekend!

Love your site by the way, read a few recipes and bookmarked to explore more later

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I'm a newish brewer, curious about sour/lambic/wild/etc beer styles. I wondering what the reason was for wheat and pilsner seeming to be the most common grains?

Largely historical reasons and traditions that evolved from breweries making economic based on available materials. Unmalted wheat was taxed less, so they went with that, over-sparged on increase efficiency, wound up with a tannic, starchy mess, and threw brett and a bunch of other bugs at it to fix a "mistake", and ended up at lambic.

There's no real intrinsic reason that other grains cannot be used.

 

[JLump]

Love your site by the way, read a few recipes and bookmarked to explore more later

Thanks! but its not my site. I too have used a few recipes from there.

 

[Oneiroi]

Largely historical reasons and traditions that evolved from breweries making economic based on available materials. Unmalted wheat was taxed less

Alway comes down to money doesn't it? Good to know theres not a definitive reason not to though, thanks!

Thanks! but its not my site. I too have used a few recipes from there.

Oops! great reference anyway

It turned out my brew-belt was more powerful than I thought, heated my lacto started up to 125f+ before I cottoned on. Pitched "50billion" Lacto Acidophilus cels from probiotics into 1l of 1036 wort 24 hours ago and not much of a PH drop. Think I may have killed them!

 

[RPh_Guy]

It turned out my brew-belt was more powerful than I thought, heated my lacto started up to 125f+ before I cottoned on. Pitched "50billion" Lacto Acidophilus cels from probiotics into 1l of 1036 wort 24 hours ago and not much of a PH drop. Think I may have killed them!

OK... quick Google search didn't return any reports of L. acidophilus being used to make sour beer. You're in uncharted territory with that species, my friend. If you can sour with that species, please let us know!

At those temps (especially since you don't know how high and for how long), I probably wouldn't use that starter anyway. [source] Also, the cell count from probiotics reduces significantly over time when stored at room temp, so if you are using an older bottle you might not have had many cells to start.

I'd suggest instead using L. plantarum -- either a probiotic (e.g. GoodBelly, Swanson, etc) or a commercial yeast product with that species. It works quickly at room temperature (above 70F preferred).

Here's a good read for starting out right: http://sourbeerblog.com/lactobacillus-2-0-advanced-techniques-for-fast-souring-beer/
American Sour Beers is a great book as well!

Cheers

 

[Oneiroi]

I was looking for L.Plantarum but my health food shop only had Acidophilus and i thought I'd read somewhere that it would work, think I'd better scratch the idea and start afresh, thanks for the help though

EDIT: Although I have actually just seen this on milk the funk (yoghurt souring section)http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Alternative_Bacteria_Sources

 

[RPh_Guy]

Although I have actually just seen this on milk the funk (yoghurt souring section)http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Alternative_Bacteria_Sources

Nancy's is the most commonly used yogurt and it contains 4 species of Lacto... Is it acidophilus that does the souring? Is it one of the other species? Or is it a combination of them?
I simply don't know and couldn't find reports of using a pure acidophilus culture.
I did find at least one report of using L. casei as a pure culture for souring, which is one of the species in Nancy's yogurt.

If you pick up a probiotic, store it on the fridge
Good luck with your beer!