Flemish Red Gravity

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chronlord

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I brewed up 10 gallons of Flemish Red (Jamil's recipe) and used WLP001 for primary. I split up the batches into two five gallon carboys and will be pitching Wyeast's Roselare Blend in one ..... and White Labs Flemish Red Blend in the other. Per Jamil's instruction, I planned on racking to secondary once the gravity got down to 1.020.

Took gravity readings yesterday after 7 days in primary and the gravity had dropped down to 1.012. Jamil suggests leaving residual sugars so the bugs will have food to eat to complete fermentation/souring.

Question: Should i make a small wort of dme or corn sugar and pitch that into the secondary to give the bacteria enough food? Any advice and/or suggestions are appreciated.
 
Anyone?

Maybe I should have put it another way.

Will the Roselare and Flemish "bugs" have enough to eat (and complete the souring process) with a 1.012 gravity?

Thanks
 
I'm no expert, I've made a few sours, but nothing compared to a few of the members around here. But my suggestion would be don't worry about it. Just leave it alone. The final product is going to end up in the 1.002 - 1.006 range, so there's still enough sugar in there for the brett and bugs to get down. I've transferred 1.010 beers to secondary that are souring up just fine. If you were at 1.004 right now, then you might have a tough time. Just my two cents.

Oh, and food for thought. You might want to pitch your bugs along with the 001 into primary on your next batch. They say you'll get more assertive sourness that way.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I just pitched the bugs.

Regarding pitching bugs in primary. I've read a few different opinions on the matter, most being that you get a more funky horsey character if you pitch bugs into primary vs secondary alone. I'll try it next time and see what happens. I'm new to all the world of wild brewing. Can't wait to see my first pellicle.

Cheers!
 
I've read a few different opinions on the matter, most being that you get a more funky horsey character if you pitch bugs into primary vs secondary alone.

I suppose it's possible, but I think that would depend on what you're pitching as well as the quantity. I recently did a 100% brett sour blonde. No sacch yeast whatsoever, just bugs and brett into primary. Couple of months in and it's nice and sour, but there's not a ton of funkyness going on. Of course that might change over the next year. So I guess what I'm saying is "who the hell knows". Cheers and congrats. Seeing that first pellicle form is a fantastic feeling.
 
I just read a few more articles and forum posts about primary vs. secondary. You may be right. Next time I'll pitch into primary. Any experience or opinion on sour mashing?

My goal for this batch was to brew something similar to Rodenbach - not necessarily as sour as Rodenbach Grand Cru. Also, I wanted to do an experiment to determine the different characters imparted by the White Labs and Wyeast bug blends. Time will tell. :)
 
Any experience or opinion on sour mashing?

I've personally never tried it. I'm a patient guy, and have a fermentation chamber with lots of space, so I only sour up my beers with bugs. From what I hear, you can make a damn fine beer with sour mashing, I've just never given it a go.

If you haven't already checked it out, this blog is a good resource on all things funky/sour/wild. You can get some info on sour mashing, or just about anything for that matter: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/
 
Thanks for the link, I've been checking that guy out for a while now. Just curious if you're anywhere near Ukiah in NorCal? I used to work in a small brewery there.
 
If you haven't already checked it out, this blog is a good resource on all things funky/sour/wild. You can get some info on sour mashing, or just about anything for that matter: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/

I've attempted just about every souring method I can find, but I still haven't done a sour mash. They just seem really difficult to get perfectly clean even flushing with CO2 to minimize oxygen contact. Even the best ones I’ve tasted have had a background vegetal/compost sort of aroma/flavor for my palate. I’ve had better luck pre-souring the wort with Lacto, before primary, but even that I don’t think compares to a normal mixed fermentation.

I’m usually a bugs-in-the-primary brewer, although for barrel aged beers it seems to be less important. You can get Brett character without much gravity drop, but sourness to tougher. If this one doesn’t sour enough, try boiling up some maltodextrin to add.

Good luck!
 
I've attempted just about every souring method I can find, but I still haven't done a sour mash.

Really? Shoot. I could have sworn I saw that somewhere on your blog. Sorry about that. I wouldn't intentionally misrepresent the site!
 
Really? Shoot. I could have sworn I saw that somewhere on your blog. Sorry about that. I wouldn't intentionally misrepresent the site!

No worries, I'm sure I've talked about them, maybe even planned one, just never actually did a sour mash. Seems like something I probably should try under ideal conditions to see how it goes.
 
Oldsock: Thanks for the advice. I really enjoy reading your blog. Heck of a resource!

ICWeiener: Didn't work at any of the big breweries, but one called Ukiah Brewing Company. Family owned organic gastropub (first in the nation). Live music every night. Great place to work. Owners were really good people.
 
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