Fruit Funk Blending Ideas

[Bizier]

I have two fermenters of funky beers which have had fruit added.

They were both a pale wort, one was pitched with Wyeast Lambic, the other with Roselare, pitched to cube and fermented there in Jan.
I have racked the lamic to glass about 6 weeks ago on 4kg morello cherries, and just chucked 2kg raspberries into the roselare cube. Because I was focusing on the lambic blend and I only have one glass carboy, I topped this up wih the roselare to get a good volume after cherry losses.

I know I should not be surprised, but a sample of the lambic today was incredibly acidic, and obviously the aceto has enjoyed the new conditions. I think that the other acids really make the aceto seem overwhelming. The beer has absolutely no body, just acid and a great cherry nose. I have not yet tried the raspberry, but I imagine it to be the same.

I want to use my beer, and I do enjoy acetic beer (Rodenbach fan), so the obvious choice is to blend with a new beer. And seeing as I have two lots, it looks like it will make a reasonably large amount of finished beer given the acid concentration.

I am thinking of Belgian Dubbel or stout or both to blend. I am thinking something with a large ester profile to boost sweet impression, also something with brown malt and a fair bit of dark crystal to round out the malt profile and buffer the acid some. Perhaps I could use a relatively large chalk addition in the mash as well.

Does anyone else have experienced advice or ideas for my situation?

 

[manticle]

My first bit of advice would be to ask this question over at the babblebelt forum. Additionally, sending the mad fermentationist (also Mike T on BB) an email through his blog should see a good, detailed response from someone who knows.

I have made sour/funk beers, I have blended beers and I have tried to reduce acidity with CaCO3 (does work) but I haven't got the exact experience combination you are chasing.

If it were my beer, I would try a small portion of the beer separately on chalk or clean eggshells to see what that brings. In the meantime, I would brew your potential blending beer and make a small blend and see how that works. Work out where to go from there.

Another thing with these buggy yeasts, especially things like roeselare, which has a few different organisms going on, is that they change character significantly with age. With most of mine, I age the base beer then add various flavours for complexity (cacao, oak, citrus zest, bourbon, scotch, vanilla, raisins, port etc, etc, etc).

One thing you do have the advantage of is time so you can experiment and see what works well.

 

[Nick JD]

I'd pour it on the garden and go back to making nice beers that aren't deliberately disgusting.

 

[Bizier]

Thanks for the constructive advice there Nick. Unfortunately I also care for the garden and I can tell you that this stuff would probably even kill the cumquat tree.

 

[barls]

the problem is that the bugs will keep working and eventually they would work back to the same state. i think babble belt would be a great place to ask the question.

 

[Bizier]

I just drew a larger sample to blend with a brown porter I have on tap, and I think it is not as bad as I had thought, the small sample threw me a little. I have already moved the raspberry through to CC, because it tastes good as-is so I am happy to keg. And while the cherry is still not balanced, it is not nearly as acetic as I thought and made out.

I am hoping that the extra headspace will assist the cherry one, because the ****** keeps swelling the cherries (now breaking down) with CO2 and losing liquid from the top.

ED: Barls, I know that, but my plan is to keg and consume, I am assuming that bacteria, like most organisms, shrivel up and only multiply slowly in the cold.

 

[barls]

np dan, ive been lucky with mine ive never had to blend any of mine, i did blend this years case swap beer though.

 

[Bizier]

So blending from available beers on tap was usefuL.

Brown porter was a non event (surprisingly) because the dry roastiness was accentuated by the acid and the sour just kind of hid in there and did not actually taste like a sour, more like a flavourful fruity Guinness. Waste of months of work to go down this road.

My pumpkin amber for WCB Ironbrewer was the far better blend, 1/4 amber with a dash of the porter made for a really drinkable beer with a good cherry vibe and a little acid sting.

I am now thinking that something along the lines of a Belgian ale brewed with loads of carahell to pad it out with some sugars, but also prevent losing the beautiful red colour. The idea I have is one keg a 3/4 blend, and the other a 1/4 inverse blend.

I know BBB can provide great wisdom, but I am still waiting on account activation.

 

[barls]

dont forget to mash high to make it a bit sweeter.