Sour beers

[mje1980]

Hmm, my heat belt is only getting the keggle to 25. Turned the gas on and got it to 35, and added foam insulation. Taste is bready and sweet/vomit haha, not very sour, which I think is temp related. I'm going away on Sunday so tomorrow morning is the latest I can leave it so whatever happens tomorrow morning I'll be boiling and cubing ( I'm night shift so I'll be sleeping most of tomorrow so needs to be done in the morning ).

It does smell funky and sour when you out your nose in the keggle and have a good deep whiff .



I am really really really not looking forward to lifting the bag and emptying and cleaning it. I'll give it a good boil in a stockpot for 20 mins or so. If it's really bad I'll keep it purely for BW and get a newy.

 

[seamad]

Looked up the brew date for an Orval beer that has been dwelling in the cellar for awhile ( 1 year and 10 months in fact ) so it's in the fridge now to chill down before I keg or bottle it. Smells effing awesome if I say so ( and the missus agreed too, looks like I'll have to share it.

 

[seamad]

Here is a better picture of the pellicle

 

[Jaded and Bitter]

ooh nice pellicle.

My flanders red hadnt developed one last time I checked although the aroma has been developing nicely, think i'll take a sample with the wine thief tomorrow.

 

[mje1980]

I've had a Flanders brown in glass since November that has no pellicle. Though I have very little head space and I use silicon stoppers and airlocks.

 

[jefin]

I've had a Flanders brown in glass since November that has no pellicle. Though I have very little head space and I use silicon stoppers and airlocks.

Hi MJE

I'm the same put my Flanders Red down at the same time as yours (back @ page 5!) and it has no pellicle. Same situation though very little head space and silicone stopper etc.

Haven't had a taste yet but smells fantastic.

Cheers Jefin

 

[barls]

sometimes i do sometime i don't get a pelical. my lambic that won new state comp didn't but subsequent batches did.
actually have the rest of it just went in the fridge as a raspberry lambic.
all it has in it is brett lambis and dregs of a bottle of previous.
hmm can't wait for anhc to bust this one out.

 

[Jaded and Bitter]

Mine has plenty of head space and oxygen from stopper removals and sniffing, so guess its normal.

 

[mje1980]

Hi MJE

I'm the same put my Flanders Red down at the same time as yours (back @ page 5!) and it has no pellicle. Same situation though very little head space and silicone stopper etc.

Haven't had a taste yet but smells fantastic.

Cheers Jefin

When I was looking at glass carboys I ended up getting 2 x 11 litre ones, so I could do a spilt batch, and also so I could lift the bloody things!. One of them I left plain, and the other has rum soaked oak chips I saved from a brett porter, and I'm sure I've added some cantillon dregs.

When are you going to bottle?, I plan on taking a reading after Xmas and going from there.

 

[jefin]

When I was looking at glass carboys I ended up getting 2 x 11 litre ones, so I could do a spilt batch, and also so I could lift the bloody things!. One of them I left plain, and the other has rum soaked oak chips I saved from a brett porter, and I'm sure I've added some cantillon dregs.

When are you going to bottle?, I plan on taking a reading after Xmas and going from there.

Hi Mje

Was thinking of raking it off onto some oak chip's soaked in pinot after Xmas and bottling mid next year (I did a 20L batch in the one carboy). Will decide once I have a taste. Might even chuck it in a keg, if I do that it wont last long though!!

Planning to do a 40L batch the same day as raking and use the dregs to get things going. If it turn's out to be good I will delicate one of my fermenters and do 40L each year (or might invest in a oak barrel!).

Did you do a primary ferment with a standard yeast then inoculate with bug's or did you chuck em all in at the start?? I went with the later option and let the beer sit on the yeast cake.

Cheers Jefin

 

[mje1980]

Ok, I'm sort of similar. Hard to be patient though . I just pitched roselare, it went nuts the first few days.

 

[jefin]

Yeah same here Mje

Can't wait to get into mine either but i think patience will pay off, I did the same pitched the roselare and she went nut's.

Looking forward to comparing notes in 14 months time!! (It's not that long!)

Cheers Jefin

 

[barls]

go cubes or dominos if your going to use oak mate better flavours.

 

[Danwood]

Staves are available for too, if you look around. Got mine from Homemakeit, American or French available....not affiliated.

Got 2x 7in. staves (not really a full stave, but you get the idea), Shiraz soaked, in a brew atm.

 

[hwall95]

Has anyone tried the Wyeast 3209PC - Oud Bruin? Was thinking about do a dark sour ale/saison and then if it turns out nice, maybe ranking a heavy stout onto the yeast cake

 

[mje1980]

go cubes or dominos if your going to use oak mate better flavours.

Got some dominoes soaking in rum now. It's just over 12 months old so I'll add the oak in a week or two into one half and I'll add some cherries to the other half and aim to check gravities for bottling around March.

 

[Jaded and Bitter]

So I bottled my Flanders Red a couple of days ago. 9 months old, although it got a couple of months following primary with the heat belt to encourage Lacto and Pedio.

It had developed a pellicle last few months and accompanying funk although the FG of 998 hadnt changed from a few months ago, figured there wasnt much more fermenting it could do. Very nice straight from the fermenter.

I put 5l on 800g of pie cherries and bottled the rest in champers bottles with 16g/l sugar priming and some new yeast.

I deliberately didnt give the bugs a great deal of food this brew as it was my first and played it safe, still has a nice tartness and accompanying funkified flavours though.

Gonna do same recipe again but target more sourness. Very happy with the results even considering the time taken.

 

[mje1980]

Nice work mate. I still haven't taken a reading of mine yet. Almost 14 months so I'll bring them down. After having a sneak peek taste of my cherry Berliner I think half of my Flanders will get cherries. Probably the non oaked half.


I thought Flanders are we're just carbed at normal ale levels, not super high carbed ?

 

[Danwood]

Wow, that's a lot of priming sugar, J and B !

I realise they're champagne, but them's some strong bottles ! How many volumes will that end up at ?

I'm just sampling my RIS actually. Oaked first, and I've just removed the cherries after their long soak (it's been around 2months).

I have some Boon Kriek yeast recultured in the fridge to throw at a 5L demi-john of it soon.

 

[Jaded and Bitter]

Cheers, yep looking forward to cracking the first bottle :icon_drool2:

Theres a few reasons why I used so much priming sugar.
I typically like slightly higher carbonation anyway, and after such a long time it likely lost much of the dissolved CO2 from the ferment and with a FG of 998 can take/needs it.

If there were more food left for the bugs to chew on in the bottle I would have used less (higher FG).

Also it tasted like it would be good sparkling

Theres enough priming sugar for about 6 volumes CO2 for a typical beer, which will probably end up around 4.5-5 in this one.