Home Brew Forum

I'm in trouble... My usual method is to mash one night and boil the next. So I mashed 92% Pilsner malt and 8% oats last night for a saison of about 1.037 OG (before later fruit additions).
BUT I live in the Canary Islands and it's our hottest part of the year with the average outside temp at the moment being 28 C. My kitchen is pretty hot and my kettle has been sitting there all day waiting for me to boil tonight. Now there are definite signs of fermentation; the krausen is even and bubbly and looks quite cool with signs of trub on the top (making me think it's bona fide). When I separate it, it looks like things are moving about underneath, too.
What shallI do? Boil tonight and hop there's still sugar left and no off flavours? Bin it? Or rack it as is and see what fruity flavours I get?

Thanks in advance

David

If you haven't boiled it, any fermentation won't give you a safe, drinkable beer.

You need to boil it don't you? That will kill off any yeasts that have formed.

When I came to boil this, it had really taken off. The krausen was at least an inch, with obvious activity bubbling up, and the smell was unbearable. Thanks for the advice concerning not boiling, fego; that idea hadn't occurred to me at all. Boiling wouldn't have achieved much as things had really progressed. I decided to tip it away and couldn't help noticing chunks that had formed. It was a beautiful colour, despite the detritus, but never mind.

Again, thanks for the advice, fego. I'd better mash and boil on the same day before the weather cools down.

What you're describing is an intentional sour mash method used for Berliner Weiss and some other antiquated sour styles. It's almost certainly the acidophilus and pedio on the grain itself. Don't despair, after boiling it and fermenting the resulting wort with regular yeast as usual, it will have a nice, crisp, tart flavour which is acceptable in a saison.

Cheers,
-Seymour

Shame you're 48 hours too late, Seymour! Would've been a good one, too, by the sounds of it. I brewed again yesterday and got three saisons out of it. I used the Pacific Jade, as intended, which smell like they would've gone down well in a Berlinner Weiss-style saison, too. I'll remember for next time, though.

DaveyT wrote:Shame you're 48 hours too late, Seymour! Would've been a good one, too, by the sounds of it. I brewed again yesterday and got three saisons out of it. I used the Pacific Jade, as intended, which smell like they would've gone down well in a Berlinner Weiss-style saison, too. I'll remember for next time, though.

Ah, I didn't read closely enough. Well, too bad.

Nevermind, Seymour. I live in high density Spanish housing so the neighbours may have complained about the smell. Also just listened to the BeerSmith podcast with the Wylabs guy talking about sour beer which makes me wonder how lucky I would've got with my choice of bacteria.

Unbearable? Like vomit/cheese or like excrement? I've intentionally sour mashed three times and been lucky twice, and unlucky once. And the unlucky one was enough to kill a brown dog... If it was that bad, you did the right thing.

I could only think of two words: barnyard and vomit. That was when I peered under the lid. When the lid was on, I kept thinking there was some bad chicken in the kitchen. It was exactly that smell throughout the whole kitchen.

DaveyT wrote:I could only think of two words: barnyard and vomit. That was when I peered under the lid. When the lid was on, I kept thinking there was some bad chicken in the kitchen. It was exactly that smell throughout the whole kitchen.

EDIT: BeerSmith Podcast 108 with Michael Dawson. It's very good.