I had a very nice sour beer that had lactobacillus in it and was wondering if I can clean and reuse the bottle? I have not made any sour beers yet but I've read you should keep separate brewing equipment when making them because even the most conscientious cleaner and sanitiser can't be confident of killing it all. Can I reuse the bottle for beer that doesn't contain lactobacillus? I have a dishwasher if that helps? Would the steam cycle …

I have recently started to get my feet wet by making some ginger beers using a ginger bug to start the fermentation. I would like to know the alcohol content of my final product, but as the ginger bug has both bacteria and yeast eating the sugars I can not figure out how I would measure the final alcohol content! 3 questions: Is there a way to figure out how much sugar has been consumed by either the yeast or …

I'm going to be tackling this recipe for my first attempt at a kettle sour. In the notes, it goes over procedures to make a starter. Researching I've come across sources that say you should have a heating pad under your beaker on the stir plate. I have neither currently and I was wondering if I could get away with not doing one. This question suggests heating the mixture to temp and then just wrapping it. Would that be effective?

The general consensus seems to be that a mash pH of 5.2-5.6 is desired. Beersmith even says it's the difference between a good beer and a truly great one. Most mention trouble with too high of a pH, but I'm wondering, what are the impacts of a much lower pH, like 4.5 or even 4.0? I ask because adjusting the pH to make the environment favor lactobacillus using acidulated malt would be a pre-mash way of lowering the pH (rather …

This is the second time I'm doing a no-boil, fast lacto sour. I had nearly 3 lbs of grain (with about 9% acid malt) for a 1 gallon batch. I did BIAB for 1 hour and put right into a fermenter. I let it cool down to about 100 °F and pitched 2 pills of Lactobacillus plantarum from Swanson Probiotics. It sits in a room without A/C, so the heat remains fairly high especially now with a heat wave in …

Recipes for spontaneous (wild) ginger ale sometimes refer to the starter as the "ginger bug". What is the ginger bug? Is it just an ordinary lactobacillus; is it a type of yeast? Is it something that is all around us, or something that is found specifically on the ginger? What role does the ginger play: is it simply a flavouring agent, does it act as a preservative, or is it something special (for instance, a carrier of important microörganisms that …

There's a store-bought grape juice that I'm interested in lacto-fermenting (i.e. no yeast, only bacteria, anaerobic ferment, etc) but I recently discovered Potassium Metabisulfite is added to "enhance freshness." Will potassium metabisulfite prevent me from lacto-fermenting this grape juice? Another thread has given me insight into how much potassium metabisulfite stops fermentation but since the amount is determined by the manufacturer, the amount of potassium metabisulfite that stops fermentation seems like a moot point since I don't know the amount …

I'm getting to be a fairly experienced brewer now but this is my first experiment with sours. I read about using lactobacillus from yoghurt so I thought I'd give it a bash. The process so far... Simple all-grain mash, OG around 1.047. Sparged, raised to 80oC to pasteurise, then chilled to 30oC. Placed in a sanitised demijohn leaving the smallest possible air gap at the top. Just shy of 5 litres in total. Popped a bubble trap on then wrapped …

Researching a Berliner weisse and have decided that I will be doing a kettle sour. Lactobacillus likes to be around 45°C from what I have read so far. Currently my thinking is to transfer the kettle onto a hotplate like this, connected to a temperature probe in order to keep a consistent temp. Would there be any issue with keeping the wort on a direct heat source for a sustained period? Any other issues with this proposal?

My last batch had a thin whitish 'membrane' on top of it and some white spots, visible on the picture bellow. I think I saw something similar on a blog a while ago, attributed to a lactobacilus infection. Taste was not too bad, but the smell was a bit strange, I went ahead and bottled 3 days ago. What is that? Should I be prepared for bottle bombs?

I occasionally use a juicer to make Ginger root juice (which is quite strong) but lately I've also considered lacto-fermenting this juice. Which leads me to my question:How fermentable is juiced Ginger really? I'm aware of how ginger bug is sometimes used to kick start ferments but juiced Ginger is something else entirely. Also, I've read quite a bit about Ginger's antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Wouldn't those same properties render a starter culture useless?

I’m in the process of creating a custom culture, made of lactic acid bacteria, for a artisan yogurt drink and am having a hard time finding information on the metabolic categories of each strain. I was wondering if someone could tell me which Lactobacillus strains are Homofermentative (or Heterofermentative), namely the following strains: Lactobacillus Gasseri Lactobacillus Fermentum Lactobacillus Sakei Lactobacillus Salivarius Lactobacillus Curvatus Lactobacillus Amylovorus Lactobacillus Johnsonii Lactobacillus Kefiranofaciens Lactobacillus Rhamnosus Lactobacillus Plantarum Lactobacillus Paracasei Lactobacillus Helveticus Weissella Koreensis Weissella …

Reading a Wikipedia article on Lacto yogurt cultures I notice a reference to beer. In a general statement they claim "lactic acid bacteria can contribute to the overall appearance, aroma, taste, and/or mouthfeel"... I'm familiar the lacto aroma and taste, but never considered the effects on appearance. Is this true, and if so, in what way, or is it just misinformation on the internet?

I have a Berliner Weisse going, the yeast out-paced the lacto (WLP 630). fermentation happened quick (1.030 O.G.) maybe a day. Due to a busy schedule and lazyness it sat on the yeast for 6 weeks, and still had no detectable "sour". I racked it off the yeast into a container(6GL.) previously filled (from the Pepsi Bottling facility, with a couple drops of fluid and a very detectable aroma) with Sierra Mist syrup. Then two weeks later added a vial …