How much acetic acid will l. plantarum create?

[sborz22]

They really need a section on here labeled "I think I did something dumb" or "I'm an idiot."

And with that preface, I began kettle souring my mash yesterday with l. plantarum caps and as I sat there today staring at what I was hoping to be quite the puckering sensation in a few weeks from now , it hit me that I should have moved the wort from my kettle to an airtight container to prevent any air from entering.

I am not worried about contamination. I pre-acidified to 4.5 and sanitized well. I am more concerned about how much acetic acid is going to be created and what the "funk" is it going to taste like.

Feeling sour right about now.

 

[ryanmbeal]

Read through this:
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Sour_Worting

You shouldn't really be worried about acetic acid at this point. And general guidelines seem to say that keeping things sealed and purged with C02 is a good idea (I always make a point to do this) but it's not an absolute requirement.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds to me like you're on the right track!

L. plantarum produces minimal acetic acid. I've kettle soured twice with this species and my kettle has huge headspace, so plenty of oxygen exposure. No detectable levels of acetic acid either time (and I'm a super-taster).

Source/good reading: https://matthumbard.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/homohetero1.jpg from https://phdinbeer.com/2015/04/13/physiology-of-flavors-in-beer-lactobacillus-species/

P.S. Kettle sours produce a very clean and smooth sour, without any "funk" or complexity you would expect from a traditional souring method aka mixed fermentation.