Kettle Souring at the Brew House

There are smaller kettles (5 gal and 10 gal, I believe) that shouldn't adversely effect the brewhouse operations if they are tied up. When I did mine, I transferred from the 20 gallons (after bringing up to 170, then briefly cooling to 100) to a 10 gallon pot (for a 10 gallon batch). I adjusted pH, then put the lid on and saran-wrapped it. I think labeled it very clearly that it shouldn't be touched, and kept it on the floor by brew station #1 and the ferm room. Putting it on the top of the lager fermenting fridge would also work, if someone is there to help you move it. The saran-wrap isn't so much to keep O2 out as it was to act as another visual cue for people to not look inside/take the top off. 

With the Omega, keeping it warm isn't super necessary, either, but with the recent dips down into these cooler temps, I understand wanting to keep the temp semi-elevated. 

@Jon: Two points:

1. "Faking" it generally doesn't work out as there are other compounds created in lactic-fermentation that remain in the beer and effect the finished taste. In my opinion, a naturally fermented/kettle soured lactic beer has more a roundness/smoothness to the end product that you don't get from just adding lactic acid at the end (which I have done before to give an impression of tartness - so while it's still anecdotal, I'm not speaking with no experience). I wouldn't use citric, that would be a more puckering tartness than intended for the style (unless you're going for warheads beer, then by all means go for it!). 

2. The reason for keeping it in the kettle is to a) reduce O2 ingress that would occur with transferring (oxygen + lacto = possible butyric acid (aka vomit)) and b) ease to bring the beer back to the boil post -24/48 souring period. You could certainly transfer to a bucket fermentor (don't use a better bottle and definitely don't use glass), but I would bubble CO2 through afterward. And then of course your bucket is delegated to be the "lacto" bucket for the remainder of its life since you wouldn't be boiling in it to kill off the lactobacillus afterward. 

Good stuff Kyle, thank you.  I realize that that using the lacto was the way to go and my ultimate goal.  Thought I'd experiment with the cheated version until I watched/learned more about the kettle souring process. I was planning on having a whole completely separate "sour" set up with a dedicated fermentor, my own transfer tubing, etc.  

    I am wanting to achieve a pretty sour/acidic batch on the "cheated' Gose because I plan on aging it on tequilla barrel chips and don't want them to be too overpowering.  Going for a margarita inspired Gose for Cervesa de Mayo and thought the extra pucker effect may mimic the lime in a margarita ( I plan on using lime zest as well).  The first batch may strip the enamel off your teeth, but hoping to nail it at some point.  

thanks again,

Jon

Here's a great resouce: 

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Wort_Souring

And yes, butyric is contamination, and flushing with CO2/keeping as much O2 out as possible is needed more for grain innoculation, but it's just another step to take to ensure a "clean" kettle soured beer, regardless of the innoculation medium. 

Also, if using a kettle, make sure it's SS :) Forgot that part. I don't think we have many/any Al kettles at the brewhouse, but yeah, don't use those for kettle souring. 

@Kyle: what kind of results would you get by steeping a muslin bag of lightly crushed acidulated malt in your wort (before the boil) until you reached a pH of 3.6ish & then proceeding as normal? (Minus the lacto).