Talk:Sour mash

Heh - this is the first 'pedia page I've seen starting "X is not...". I'll fix it.... Calbaer 18:52, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Acidity is produced by bacteria, and is not a preventative to its growth.
This whole entry displays an ignorance in both microbiology and fermentation.

The article could be improved. Yeast require an initial pH of 5-5.5 for strong fermentation. This pH is provided by the malted grain. (Since it is not beer brewing, then the addition of un-malted grain needs to be explained.) The acidity provided by lactobacillus is another type of acid, essential in the finished flavor. This is also very important in red wine making. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.244.87.201 (talk) 21:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

In much the same way that carbon dioxide is produced by humans, and is not a preventative to their growth? Acid is a bacterial waste product, and the presence of acidity tends to favor (not exclusively, but still significantly) yeast growth over bacterial growth.

Sour mash "starts" fermentation?
It doesn't seem right to me to state "material from an older batch of mash to start fermentation in the batch currently being made". Most distillers talk about it controlling pH and providing consistency... for example: 8 basic bourbon terms, which actually states "A lot of people think it’s about the yeast, like a sourdough bread. It’s not. The yeast actually dies during distillation"

Also check out The Difference Between Bourbon Whiskey & Sour Mash — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.215.30.51 (talk) 18:34, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Almost completely wrong as of 2/21/2018
This article is almost completely incorrect in its description of sour mashing for distilling. It needs a full re-write. And to start with, sour mashing for distilling has nothing to do with sour mashing for brewing, so perhaps there should be separate sections, if not pages, for the two. Yes, growth of lactobacillus can sour a beer, and that can also be called "sour mashing", and used in both brewing and distilling. But that is not what "Sour Mash" on a whiskey label means. Xraynano (talk) 17:56, 21 February 2018 (UTC)