Lambic Marathon - Page 2

Texron · 10-06-2009, 05:24 AM

Well, I guess the "Third Times The Charm?!

Got home from work tonight and The top was blown of my fermentation bucket and there was a substantial amount of foam sprayed on the wall and splattered on the floor. What a pain but I guess it happens. The first two batches didn't do this. I guess the yeast cake has developed to the point that it "kicks-off" much faster now. The bucket is now sitting in the kitchen sink with the top just sitting up there; not snapped into place. I placed a towel over it to kinda hold it in place should another "surge" occur.

Texron · 10-19-2009, 11:16 PM

OK-I racked my third batch into the secondary on top of the Sweet Cherry Puree. When the carboy was topped off I still had about one half gallon of the straight sour beer left. I poured it into a plastic container to save it.

I was thinking of pouring this liquid off into however many 12 ounce beer bottles it will take to hold them and then save them in a cool place for future "souring" projects. If I was to brew say, an old brown and then add a bottle of this when I rack it to the secondary it should get it started on souring, shouldn't it?

Is this a viable idea or should I just disgard what was left over?

beeraroundtown · 10-19-2009, 11:23 PM

Sounds like it should be fine. Make sure to add an airlock to the bottles, the yeast will continue to work on any sugars left and still produce CO2.

You can also do this with oak cubes. If you add some to your souring beer the bugs/brett take up residence, then you can then save them and add them to other batches that you want to sour.

Texron · 10-19-2009, 11:42 PM

I was thinking of putting it into beer bottles, capping them, and then storing them in the bottom of a refrigerator. It spent two weeks in primary so there shouldn't be a lot of sugar to deal with.

Or maybe I should keep the bottles at room temp and let the sour bugs continue to develope.

**Stratotankard** · 10-20-2009, 12:03 AM

The thing with sour bugs/Brett is that there ALWAYS seems to be more sugar for fermentation.

I'd hold off on capping the bottles if they were only 2 weeks in primary. Otherwise, you might be looking at bombs in a few months.

This project sounds really cool. /subcribed

Terje

Texron · 10-20-2009, 06:32 AM

OK-I'll just leave it in the bucket for now.

Its in one of those white plastic buckets that LME comes in from the hobby shop. The worst that can happen there is pop the lid loose and I can just vent once a week or so. I have a few different sour beers that I plan to add a bit to each of my three working carboys to add to the complexity so I will add a bit of each to these "sour Mixer" as well.

bhatchable · 10-27-2009, 02:33 AM

sweet project. stoked to hear how they all turn out. subscribed

Texron · 11-01-2009, 11:02 PM

I am inspired to try something similar to Saccharomyces thread elsewhere in this forum:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/saison-de-provision-119921/

My LHBS made up the following extract menu for me based on Sacc's recipee.

11.5 lbs Pilsner liquid extract
1.13 lbs Vienna Malt grain
1.00 lbs Flaked Soft White Wheat grain
0.50 lbs Aromatic Malt grain

Steeping grain 155-1588 deg F for 30 minutes then a 90 minute boil.

Hop schecdule using Styrian Golding Hops:

2 oz. for 90 minutes
1/2 oz. for 20 minutes
1/2 oz at 2 minutes

I plan to pitch White Labs WLP Saison Ale yeast for fermentation and then pitch White Labs WLP 655 Belgian Sour Mix 1 for aging. Bulk age for at least six months then bottle.

I am most interested in any comments, advice, or recommendations.

Texron · 11-09-2009, 01:34 AM

Ok- I started the Saison de Provision batch today as mentioned above. The specialty grains smelled wonderful while steeping as well as the wort during the boil. It will be interesting to see what we have here in the months to come.

Texron · 11-17-2009, 04:25 PM

Yesterday I pitched a vial of White Labs WLP 655 Belgian Sour Mix. Then I put the primary fermentor into a water bath with an aquarium heater and raised the temp to 80 Deg F. Any suggestions on how much longer iI should live it in the primary before going to a secondary fermentor. And then any suggestion how long I should leave it in the secondary at 80 degrees?