I am using a technique discussed in the November 2011 issue of BYO, called sour worting that is one method used to make a sour beer without taking 1 - 2 years before the beer is ready to drink. Basically, I inoculated 13 gallons of pre-boil wort in 3 carboys, from a 1/2 gallon starter of lactobacillus, added airlocks, and put the carboys at 90F in my fridge ferment chamber for almost three days (by tomorrow). After 48 hrs, just now I checked the fermenters and there’s some co2 pushing thru the airlocks into the fridge and a pungent sour smell, that has spread a little to the whole basement. Is it likely that the exhaled lacto from off-gassing will infect the inside of my ferment chamber?
Tomorrow when I am boiling/hopping the wort, I will make a solution of water and bleach in a squirt bottle, and squirt down the inside fridge walls, but am wondering if you think I may have infection problems with my future regular (non-sour) beers after this.
bleach will kill most any bacteria. make sure you dilute it to the proper ratio and you’ll be fine. i wouldnt ferment a regular batch until the three carboys are removed and then do the sanitizing. also its doubtful you would have any problems period, considering airlocks, but if it were me i would still spray it down with a disinfectant to be safe.
Yeah, I think I’ll be ok, and the liquid in the airlocks is half vodka too. It’s really a slow off-gassing. And the sour smell is actually pretty exciting, and really only close to the fridge. I’m just a tad nervous since I’ve always avoided any “bugs” until this batch. Coming home from work at noon tomorrow to continue this little adventure with the boil/chill followed by pitch of regular sacchromyces yeast.
I’m wondering too what my starting SG will be by tomorrow - I’m seeing a fair amount of trub collecting already at the bottom of the carboys. I know some varieties of lacto do convert sugars to alcohol, but I used WY5335 in hopes of avoiding one of those strains you can get by culturing lacto from raw malt.
