Roeselare question

Doing my first Flanders Red this weekend. Couple of questions do I need to use a another yeast than the roeselare or can that be my primary yeast, when do I want to rack this sucker and finally will I be all right leaving this in a bucket the entire time. Thanks for the help in advanced this is a new world for me.

You can use another yeast strain first if you like but it isn't necessary. If you ferment this for the duration in a plastic bucket you can pick up a pretty strong vinegar taste. Long term aging should be done in something less oxygen permeable. Rack it when the primary yeast seems to have gone dormant. Be sure to transfer some yeast and trub into the secondary for the bugs to feed off of.

Good luck scary. I just made my first sour based on roselare. I read that it's more sour if you pitch straight roselare. So that's what I did. My recipe book indicates that pitching a neutral yeast first will make it less sour; i.e., if you were making a sour brown you might consider this.

I'd suggest adding some extra primary yeast along with the Roeselare in primary. I've had bad luck getting blends to give a good primary fermentation without help, but you want the bugs in early so they can grow with the simple sugars.

I'd also suggest some bottle dregs from a couple good unpasteurized sours in primary/secondary. Racking it out of the bucket is probably a good idea, although the only Roeselare sour I've tasted that was aged in a bucket wasn't vinegary at all at ~6 months (might have gotten there later).

Thanks guys. Would some Nottingham be fine to pitch with the Roeselare?

Kicked my own first Flemish Red off last weekend using a 2l starter of Roeselare to kick start fermentation. It was still a little slow to get really going but is now bubbling away happily.

SCARYLARRY said:

Thanks guys. Would some Nottingham be fine to pitch with the Roeselare?

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Yes, if you want it less sour you should pitch the Notty first, let it ferment out, then pitch the bugs and let them go to work on the residual sugars that the Notty didnt get to.

I keep Roselare in primary for a month. Then I rack and let it sit for about 6 months before adding extra critters. I'm debating this method however; I might start racking directly on to extra funk immediately...perhaps this will increase the speed of the sour process.

I thought the Roeselaire had a little Saccro in it anyway.

With my Flanders Red the smack pack never puffed, it took 10-14 days to take-off and it's struggling to form a pellicle. It's still young at just over 2 months so I'm not worried. Just needs some TLC of commercial dregs (Monk's cafe, Ichtegem's, & De Proef Zoetzuur) I think I'll take your advise by adding them at 6 months.

My roselare swelled completely in the pack within 12 hours. I had strong fermentation within 24 hours. It's been 2 weeks. I pulled a sample yesterday (ported better bottle makes this easy) and it has a nice sourness going already. Crazy.

passedpawn said:

My roselare swelled completely in the pack within 12 hours. I had strong fermentation within 24 hours. It's been 2 weeks. I pulled a sample yesterday (ported better bottle makes this easy) and it has a nice sourness going already. Crazy.

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Yeah at 2 weeks you will have a good lactic sourness. At 4-8 months, the pedio will kick in and it will get about 2-3x as sour. After 8 months it will have peaked in the sourness, and the brett funk will increase after that.