Sour beers

[thumbsucker]

Questions moving forward are:
1. How long should I ferment for?
2. How long should I bottle condition for?

Ferment to taste keep the Kombucha SCOBY in until it reaches happy profile for your taste. Then take a gravity reading to see how much it has dropped if any. Kombucha is a cluster FUBAR of yeast and bacteria so you may have something close to final gravity or you could have near your OG. Who knows.

If its gravity has majorly dropped I would be tempted to let it finish by itself and then force carb in a keg before bottling (This avoids adding sugar that can lead to bottle bombs as the Brett goes nuts). Skip hops and US05

If you boil then pitch US05 bottle condition is null because you will kill anything off that can contribute to bottle conditioning the beer.

 

[Zorco]

mmmmm....scoby

 

[Hambone]

Ferment to taste keep the Kombucha SCOBY in until it reaches happy profile for your taste. Then take a gravity reading to see how much it has dropped if any. Kombucha is a cluster FUBAR of yeast and bacteria so you may have something close to final gravity or you could have near your OG. Who knows.

If its gravity has majorly dropped I would be tempted to let it finish by itself and then force carb in a keg before bottling (This avoids adding sugar that can lead to bottle bombs as the Brett goes nuts). Skip hops and US05

If you boil then pitch US05 bottle condition is null because you will kill anything off that can contribute to bottle conditioning the beer.

Ok great thanks for the advice.
Cheers

 

[Hambone]

OG was 1065, SG 1060 today after 1 week.
Tastes slightly sour but malty in the mouth after that.
Probably leave another week then do the boil.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

However sometimes you get lucky, my first sour was a Witbier flavoured with Hibiscus flowers the flowers had some kind of wild yeast on them and I got a secondary infection in the Witbier, it turned out magical. This bright red wheat beer with this lovely floral acidity.

Not necessarily an infection: hibiscus flower is very acidic by itself. I once developed a hibsicus flavoured wine as a contract job and was surprised by how much acidity the hibiscus contributed. It would be even more evident in beer with its higher pH.

 

[Hambone]

Day 14 SG 1045 down from OG 1066. So did a 20 min boil with 5g each of Simcoe, Amarillo and Galaxy at 10 min. Now I will ferment with US05 at 18Degrees Celsius.