Beer Forum

After listening to the session from last Sunday I'm interested in trying a Saison (my first) with the sour mash tech. talked about.

I'm contemplating a basic saison recipe, mashing in at about 148-150, doing a no sparge mash, and leaving the whole mash overnight in the tun. My tun is a 15 gallon cooler that holds temp pretty dame well.

Thoughts?

I wonder how well your runoff will be if the temp drops to 135. Might be a pain in the ass...

I think you would have better success (and control) if you only soured a portion of the mash a few days in advance, then added that back to the mashtun right before sparging. I have good success with this technique in the past. Sometimes the sourmash can get out of control and you wouldn't want to lose a whole batch b/c of it. Besides, a saison can be sour, but not as sour as a berliner weisse.

Here is Chris Colby's article from BYO mag.
http://byo.com/component/resource/artic ... techniques
I think he did an interview on the subject with Basic Brewing Radio. Check there archives.
Good Luck!

I'm trying with the whole mash overnight. It started at 149 at noon and has dropped to 140. Should be about 130 in the morning.

So...The bugs survive the boil?

the lactobacillus present on the grains will not survive the boiling process, thereby leaving you with a controlled sour mash. Just be aware that your final product will probably dry out quite a bit due to the dropping temps in the mash tun over the 24 hr. period. But it is a saison, so it should be fairly dry anyway. Keep us posted with your results..

why not mash and then runoff and let just the wort sit overnight? then no stuck mash issues. thats what i did yesterday for a sorta-berliner weiss. again, its my first sour mash but what does letting the wort sit in with the grain add? i just threw in some grain at 120 degrees and put the igloo in the attic. i'm gonna bring to a boil in the am and pitch. i mashed out before running off but if your mashing at 147-149 for long enough how much more fermentable could letting it sit make it?