BAD IDEA

MrBIP

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So, I went ahead and started a boil, but I think this turns out be a very bad idea.
Made an RIS this past sunday, then sparged again and collected some lower gravity wort.
But, I was whipped by the end of the brew day, so I put it in a ferment bucket with the lid and the air lock and put it in a cool temp closet until this morning.
Pulled the lid off and it smelled bad.. like sour.
So, I'm thinking storing the unboiled wort not a good idea? Or if I go ahead and boil will the nasty stuff boil out?
At this point, I'm thinking of dumping before I waste any more propane.

(This was to be a grand experiment, extra run off from a "big" beer and yeast harvested from commercial bottles)
 
I'd boil it and toss some yeast in to see how it would turn out! :D I haven't tried storing unboiled wort before but I would think boiling it will kill off anything that's bad in it. Give it a go and let us know how it turns out.
 
Well, I did complete the boil, cooled, pitched the yeast... and then dumped it.
Sunday, pre-boil, was 1.022 gravity, so figured it might boil down to 1.04?
This morning, post boil, 1.02 ??? so I'm thinking something wild got in there and ate it while it sat for 5 days. And what was I going to get from a 1.02 OG?? a non-alcoholic funny tasting black colored beer?
It didn't smell funny after boil, smelled "normal".
No harm no foul, there was really no serious cost on trying it, a little bit of hops, DME to grow yeast, some propane.
 
The run off wort would need to have been brought up to pasteurization temperatures in order to keep it for any period of time. Then you would have succeeded.
When you say no harm, I'd be very careful as you've been growing bacteria and if not properly treated it can sour future batches that are fermented in this equipment. :(
I'd boil or treat with boiling water any equipment that came in contact with the soured wort, or replace it.
Brian
 
If you boiled it, it would no longer be infected. Might have been an interesting experiment, boiling and fermenting a wort that wild bugs had already had a go at. Still, the odds of anything good coming out of it were pretty small so I wouldn't call dumping it a waste. I might store a wort overnight but no longer....
 
Ive had wort sour before, after boiling I had it in my cool closet to get down from 90 to 70 and somehow the closet heated up and soured the beer, ended up finishing but never got the sourness out
 
The Brew Mentor said:
I'd boil or treat with boiling water any equipment that came in contact with the soured wort, or replace it.
Brian

Thankfully the only thing I use that bucket for is this kind of oddball stuff. "Regular" beer goes thru glass carboys exclusively.
 
If I'm busy then I'll mash one day and brew the next--no problems. But if we're going to store wort longer than a day then I'd refrigerate it.
 

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