Rapsberry Rye-Wheat Sour Mash

Hey guys!

I'm going to brew a Raspberry Wheat Beer soon, for the summer, and I'm considering a sour mash. I did a Berliner Weisse with lacto into the fermentor and didn't went as sour as I wanted, so I'm going to try sour mash this time.

I've read a lot about the sour mash, but it was pretty much always for low gravity berliner weisse-ish beers around 1030-1035.

I'm going to something around 1045-1050 with the following recipe:

50% Pils
30% Flaked Wheat
10% Wheat Malt
10% Flaked Rye

EKG for bitterness, shooting for 15 IBUs
WLP400 - Belgian wit

Around 3 pounds of frozen raspberries going into the secondary


What should I consider for a sour mash at this gravity?
I am looking only to accentuates the tartness that will go along with the raspberries and the wlp400. I am NOT looking for a sweet raspberry flavor, I want something dry and refreshing.

I would probably not be able to maintain a high temp for the sour mash, the highest I could get is maybe 75-80°F, so I'm thinking something around 3 or 4 days at this temp.

Sour mashes are hard to predict. Try to keep oxygen out, purge with CO2 if at all possible. Other than that, taste as you go. You can measure the pH too. The big issue with pre-souring is that if you get too sour, you're primary yeast won't be too happy.

Raspberries are a tough fruit to brew with, their aroma is awesome, but it is hard to get a saturated fruit flavor. I just racked 4 gallons of sour brown onto 15 lbs of defrosted raspberries.

Good luck!

Oldsock said:

Sour mashes are hard to predict. Try to keep oxygen out, purge with CO2 if at all possible. Other than that, taste as you go. You can measure the pH too. The big issue with pre-souring is that if you get too sour, you're primary yeast won't be too happy.

Raspberries are a tough fruit to brew with, their aroma is awesome, but it is hard to get a saturated fruit flavor. I just racked 4 gallons of sour brown onto 15 lbs of defrosted raspberries.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Yhea, that was the big interrogation point for me, the level of sourness. I can't really go by taste and brew when it's OK, because I have a busy schedule and I'm brewing at a predicted time.

I think I might go with a partial sour mash. I will sour 4 ou 5 liters (for a 20-22L final), which I'll be able to maintain around 100-110°F for a good 3 weeks. Then I'll be able to use this sour part to adjust my mash pH, and then add the rest of it at sparge.

That way, if the sour mash turns out bad, I will not have scrap an entire batch, I could brew the beer anyway.

Tiroux said:

Yhea, that was the big interrogation point for me, the level of sourness. I can't really go by taste and brew when it's OK, because I have a busy schedule and I'm brewing at a predicted time.

I think I might go with a partial sour mash. I will sour 4 ou 5 liters (for a 20-22L final), which I'll be able to maintain around 100-110°F for a good 3 weeks. Then I'll be able to use this sour part to adjust my mash pH, and then add the rest of it at sparge.

That way, if the sour mash turns out bad, I will not have scrap an entire batch, I could brew the beer anyway.

Click to expand...

Rather than doing a sour mash for that long, consider collecting a few liters of wort and souring that with a culture of Lactobacillus grown from grain (I call it sour wort-ing). I'd worry that after 3 weeks a sour mash would rot. You'll probably reach the acid tolerance of the bacteria long before then anyway.

Oldsock said:

Rather than doing a sour mash for that long, consider collecting a few liters of wort and souring that with a culture of Lactobacillus grown from grain (I call it sour wort-ing). I'd worry that after 3 weeks a sour mash would rot. You'll probably reach the acid tolerance of the bacteria long before then anyway.

Click to expand...

I meant 3 days...

Why you're talking about sour mashing? That's exactly what I'm talking about lol.