Mr. No-Tip
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So I am ramping up for 100l of lambic to go in my new oak barrel. I've been doing a lot of reading on recipes and brewing techniques, but I am still a bit up in the air about fermentation.
I've read and heard advice that barrel beers work well with a primary ferment in a carboy using something neutral, then transfer into the barrel and add the bugs as fermentation dies down.
While I've read that true lambics aren't racked into secondary (accuracy?) I don't think I am wanting to do a full ferment in the barrels. Don't really want to mess around with that.
But I just realised that the yeast I am planning to use in the barrel, WLP655, contains a sach as well as the bugs. That got me thinking that I would be being a little bit wasteful to not primary ferment with that yeast. Obviously if I do a primary with the 655 I'll have to segregate that fermenter off for sours only, but that doesn't seem too bad.
Any reason why I shouldn't use the 655 right through? Should I perhaps save a vial and pitch that fresh when racking into the barrel? Or should I can this and go with a neutral yeast and pitch separate brett/lacto/whatever else to the barrel?
I've read and heard advice that barrel beers work well with a primary ferment in a carboy using something neutral, then transfer into the barrel and add the bugs as fermentation dies down.
While I've read that true lambics aren't racked into secondary (accuracy?) I don't think I am wanting to do a full ferment in the barrels. Don't really want to mess around with that.
But I just realised that the yeast I am planning to use in the barrel, WLP655, contains a sach as well as the bugs. That got me thinking that I would be being a little bit wasteful to not primary ferment with that yeast. Obviously if I do a primary with the 655 I'll have to segregate that fermenter off for sours only, but that doesn't seem too bad.
Any reason why I shouldn't use the 655 right through? Should I perhaps save a vial and pitch that fresh when racking into the barrel? Or should I can this and go with a neutral yeast and pitch separate brett/lacto/whatever else to the barrel?