Sour beers

[Tony]

Glass.

I presume it will take longer with the low oxygen permeability of the glass.

 

[Damien13]

Yeah, that is what I have found with all three of mine I put down over the last 4 years. The first two, I fermented with an ale yeast then added the lambic blend/dregs/ etc when racking into the glass, with an airlock. Bairly an oil dusty slick on the surface. Both awesome awesome lambics now. The third, I bunged a foil top on for about a fortnight, and got about a millimetre of crustiness straight away. I freaked, and whacked an airlock on and the crustiness has remained. Defo because of the air ingress.
I have serious pellicle envy of peeps who have frigging moon surfaces on their lambics!

 

[Tony]

Yes....... pellicle envy is what i now have as well.

Never thought i would be upset that me brew has not gone moldy

cheers mate

 

[tricache]

Damn you sour people...I am now going through the Pellicle Photo thread on Homebrewtalk.com :lol:

 

[Damien13]

awesome isn't it!

 

[tricache]

mmmmm Pellicles

 

[hsb]

Planning one for the weekend but most likely just a step-mash as can't accommodate a turbid mash right now.
Could probably do a 50C protein rest, take a litre of that and boil it up as a compromise.
Then ramp straight up to 69C for lots of sugar bug food? Whatdayareckon?

Planning to pitch a lambic blend straight up, into glass.

^ Hot pellicle porn! Looks like a microscope shot, not a 2 foot wide fermenter!

 

[Tony]

hsb.......if you have a read of my post about the turbid mash, its not really any different to a step mash.

You just mash really REALLY thick, remove some of the liquid at points, heating to stop enzyme activity, and adding more water back to the mash to heat to the next step.

also, mashing high for lots of sugars for the bugs to eat is not the point....... its the starch and other byproducts of the turbid mash that the bugs eat..... not so much the sugars.

however, there is no reason why you cant do what you plan. Pull a liter or 2 at the 50 deg rest and heat it to over 80 deg to stop any conversion, and just add this to the kettle as it comes to the boil to get some unconverted starch in there.

 

[hsb]

Thanks Tony, I'll ponder on that.
Am gonna try this with a 2 vessel (+ HERMS) setup I've got at the moment, so inclined to try the latter (starchy early runnings straight to boil) and use the herms to step rather than the traditional remove/add style of stepping. Bit stretched for pots to put it all in right now.
Will stick nearer to your rest temps as well, thanks, that makes more sense.

 

[petesbrew]

Got a Smoked porter with some Brett yeast in it.... bit of an experiment.
Had a taste yesterday after a week.

Smoked Balsamic Vinegar anyone? I'm praying it gets better over time, but currently regretting not bottling half.

 

[Bizier]

Brett shouldn't be acetic. Are you sure it is vinegarish?

 

[aaronpetersen]

I'm pretty sure Brett will produce acetic acid in the presence of oxygen. My last 100% Brett Lambicus beer definitely has a bit of balsamic vinegar aroma and flavour.

 

[Bizier]

The font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, says:
"The yeast is acidogenic, and when grown on glucose rich media produces large amounts of acetic acid."

Well, I will take HP sauce with my humble pie.

 

[seamad]

An Orval type beer i made last year had a fair bit of acetic character at the first tastings from 6-8 months, left it alone awhile and its appeared to have diminshed, or other flavours have dominated it, bit over year now and pretty tasty. That one was wlp510 in primary, then orval dregs added and bottled. The current one was wlp510 again and then transferred to demijohn with orval dregs, no sign of any activity for 4 weeks, checked this arvo and lovely white Camembert pellicle has appeared .
Now just gotta fill up that octave.

 

[Tony]

Ok....... i now have a 3rd glass carboy, and plan a 2nd Lambic, mainly due to the fact that i ordered 2 Wyeast packs of lambic blend by mistake.

I am thinking of making something a bit different and was wondering if anyone has had any "Wild Ideas" (what i plan to name it) on lambic's

A few things i am tossing about in my mind are:

Black lambic
using Rye malt
Black Rye lambic
Rosewater
Honey
Smoked malt

Any thoughts people ?????

 

[Damien13]

hmmm I tend to keep my recipe pretty similar with all my sours. The only changes I make are what fruit I add (ie rasberries, cherries or nothing). THe other thing I have played with is to add a shit load of sour dregs to one, and to the others just see how the wyeast behaves unsullied...
Having said all this... I would love to create something like that billy b's beer/cider thingo... that stuff is frigging gorgeous. So maybe some apples and honey?

 

[Tony]

yeah thats not a bad idea, but im more a fan of strait lambic without fruits.

I was going to split off a 5L carboy of the traditional lambic at Xmas time when fresh cherries are on the shelves, but might split a 2nd one and add some apples and honey.

Keep coming back to Rye for some reason.

Maybe a Red Rye Lambic with wild Hibiscus and Rye malt ??

 

[Damien13]

noice... I am lucky to live near a place called Frozberries who sell frozen pitted sour cherries. Adds a great whack of sour to an already sour lambic... I am not sure if the ripe store cherries will add enough 'umph'. You will need to send me a bottle for me to appraise. Speaking of which, let me know when you are bottling and we can trade a few!
Your buddy in sours,
Damien

 

[Tony]

Sour Cherries you say. Cool, i will lock that one in the memory banks ans start keeping an eye open for them locally.

I must say that the smell coming from the airlock is very promising. Smells like lambic so it must be going well. I added the last mouthful of some Cantillion after a good swirl of the bottle to stir up the dregs.

10 - 4 sour buddy

 

[Tony]

Something i just thought of........Has anyone calculated the amount of sugars (alcahol) that will be added to a lambic per KG of sour cherries?