Not sure if I'm doing this right (sour noob)

[justindustrial]

Hey all,

I'm making an off-style Berliner Weisse, aiming for 4.5% ABV and using all American ingredients. Rather than using Lacto fermentation, I'm doing a partial sour mash: 0.5 gal wort on uncrushed 2-row, the other 2 gal from the same wort got pitched straight onto Sacc. I plan to blend them together to taste.

Pitched 1 day ago.

The sacc half is doing fine, as expected.

The half gallon I threw on 1 pound of uncrushed 2-row smells. The smell is sick-sweet, like someone ate a bunch of diapers and then threw up. Gross, but not overwhelming.

I've been aiming to keep it around 120F but it's only sitting in my insulated mash tun in a water bath, and the temperature is fluctuating. I keep adding hot water to keep the temp up, but over night and throughout the day it dropped to 84F. At one point I was heating it up and it got to almost 140.

Not sure what to expect, any thoughts?

 

[jokomobo]

The smell seems about right to me. I just finished my first sour wort americanized berliner and had same type of smell. Nasty sweet musty corn like. As for temp, try too keep it as stable as possible, but I'm sure it will be fine. Enjoy!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Dropping down to 84 could have made the stink. I try to keep it 110-120 and just get yogurt like smells with a lot of tartness.

This is a helpful article: https://***********/stories/item/889-how-to-make-a-sour-mash-techniques