Mixed culture fermentation

[gazzagahan]

hello brewers, i'm stepping into the unknown with my first mixed culture wild fermentation. After a month in the primary, using a culture I picked up from Wildflower brewery in Marrickeville, I've now got got 20 litres of nicely soured ale which is ready for secondary fermentation. I'd like to get some oak into the the flavour profile. My question is whether to add some oak chips into the secondary fermenter or whether to add them to the glass carboys that i'm going to age the beer for around 8-12 months. any advice would be very gratefully accepted. cheers!

 

[ABG]

I've only used oak once. I used cubes rather than chips in a glass carboy based on advice from Jamil and Jonathan Palmer on their show Brew Strong. http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post440/ There's about 15 minutes of great info and 45 minutes of crap. I removed the oak from secondary after a few weeks from memory - it was a while back. A little oak goes a long way.

I'm also really interested to hear Wildflower shared their yeast. I'm a big fan of their work and would really like to know how you go with this brew. I imagine it will taste pretty funky straight after brewing, but will start to come into its own after 6-12 months.

Good luck!

 

[gazzagahan]

I've only used oak once. I used cubes rather than chips in a glass carboy based on advice from Jamil and Jonathan Palmer on their show Brew Strong. http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post440/ There's about 15 minutes of great info and 45 minutes of crap. I removed the oak from secondary after a few weeks from memory - it was a while back. A little oak goes a long way.

I'm also really interested to hear Wildflower shared their yeast. I'm a big fan of their work and would really like to know how you go with this brew. I imagine it will taste pretty funky straight after brewing, but will start to come into its own after 6-12 months.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info, will definitely let you know how it goes. Unless I ruin it.

 

[AJ80]

I've done this a few times with good success using oak cubes (avoid chips for this - too much serface area). I'd recommend about 30g of cubes for 20L of beer. I've either steamed the cubes for 20 mins, cooled and then racked the beer onto it OR steeped the cubes in a spirit/port/red wine for a week before adding the cubes and liquid to the beer. I've left oak cubes in sour beer for over a year with nil off flavours or over tannin extraction (to me taste).

As an aside, I'm always on the lookout for new sour cultures. Any chance you'd be happy to post some of the culture to Victoria? I'd happily pay the costs involved. Please let me know!

 

[JB]

Split the costs & share the love, sir?

I've done this a few times with good success using oak cubes (avoid chips for this - too much serface area). I'd recommend about 30g of cubes for 20L of beer. I've either steamed the cubes for 20 mins, cooled and then racked the beer onto it OR steeped the cubes in a spirit/port/red wine for a week before adding the cubes and liquid to the beer. I've left oak cubes in sour beer for over a year with nil off flavours or over tannin extraction (to me taste).

As an aside, I'm always on the lookout for new sour cultures. Any chance you'd be happy to post some of the culture to Victoria? I'd happily pay the costs involved. Please let me know!

 

[AJ80]

Split the costs & share the love, sir?

Yes. Every time, yes. ;-)

 

[paulyman]

I usually haveup to 4 sours going at any one time. Two of them are solera like, I call them my perpetual sours, in that when I pull a batch a new batch goes in, I usually leave about 4-5L of the previous batch behind. The two perpetual sours have two oak staves each, which have been in there since batch one, I’m now on batch four I think. The first batches sat for 12 months and the oak was prominent, subsequent batches are less so. The primary reason they are there isn’t for the oak character but as a bug hotel. When I completely drain them in the future the bug hotel should allow some of my bug ecosystem to transfer to the new initial batches.

 

[gazzagahan]

I've done this a few times with good success using oak cubes (avoid chips for this - too much serface area). I'd recommend about 30g of cubes for 20L of beer. I've either steamed the cubes for 20 mins, cooled and then racked the beer onto it OR steeped the cubes in a spirit/port/red wine for a week before adding the cubes and liquid to the beer. I've left oak cubes in sour beer for over a year with nil off flavours or over tannin extraction (to me taste).

As an aside, I'm always on the lookout for new sour cultures. Any chance you'd be happy to post some of the culture to Victoria? I'd happily pay the costs involved. Please let me know!

hey, thanks for the advice. much appreciated. PM me your address and i'll stick a tube of loveliness in the mail for you. no problem. cheers.

 

[AJ80]

hey, thanks for the advice. much appreciated. PM me your address and i'll stick a tube of loveliness in the mail for you. no problem. cheers.

Pleasure mate. Shot you a PM last night.