ChadChaney

Recipes 

So I brewed a Flanders red/brown ale on Sunday, cooled and pitched a wash of ECY bugfarm in the low 60's. As of right now I have zero activity, tried rousing the yeast blend just now, if no activity by morning should I repitch?

Side note, brewed a small batch of Berlienr-Kolsch at the same time(made a starter form a wash of ECY Kolsch that somehow became infected with what I am hoping is lacto, smelled like green apples) and pitched at the same time at roughly the same temp and this ine has a nice thin pellicle formed already and smells super sour.

ReverseApacheMaster

Recipes 

I've never tasted an infection that tasted good.

What do you mean by wash?

smokinghole

Recipes 

You need to get some heat into that bugfarm to get it going, that's been my experience at least. Every strain I've used from ECY is great but when I pitch them at 65-70F they just sit there and VERY slowly ferment. Only when I warm the fermentor up for about 12 hours will they get up and go.

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cfonnes

Recipes 

I have never reused a mix, from what I have read you will not get the same proportioned mix of bugs as what was originally intended.

How old was the brew that you took the bugs from? Maybe there is no/little Saccharomyces left. The Brettanomyces in small amounts takes a long time to show activity. The Lactobacillus and Pediococcus in small amounts will take much longer to start.

If it was me I would either pitch a new bug farm or raise the temperature and plan on things going very slow.

ChadChaney

Recipes 

What I mean by a "wash" is that I had a batch of Kolsch that I bottled and then took the yeast cake and "washed" it with boiled water, cooled of course, and then saved some of the yeast to use in a later batch. When I made the starter it fermented pretty normal but has a wicked sour/green apple smell and I emailed Al from ECY and the thought was maybe lacto since I have made several batches of sours lately(some got in there somehow). Hoping to end up with a sour Kolsch or Berliner-Kolsch, if not the grain bill cost me little to nothing, some 6 row, flaked maize and instant rice, and only a 3 gallon batch.

As for the Flanders, the wash of Bugfarm was less than a month old and came form a very healthy fermentation and I was hoping that it would sour more quickly since it is generation 2. I will toss the carboy on a brewpad and see if that will start some action, if not I am left to pitch a Roslelere or Belgian Sour Mix or I guess I could go Trappist/Abbey and then Brett L??

ChadChaney

Recipes 

Heat was the trick, had to put a blow off on! I am assuming it is cool to turn the heat off now that I have active fermentation?

smokinghole

Recipes 

That's what I typically do unless it's a saison.

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nshalev

Recipes 

i would have waited with the Flanders. it would have started actively eventually. i don't like the idea of starting hot and than cooling down. but six months of fermentation will mellow it out anyhow.