How quickly does Roeselare ferment?

In your guys' experience, how quickly does the Roeselare blend work?

I brewed up a red on Wednesday (02Feb) and as of today (07Feb) the gravity hasn't moved (from 1.071). It's currently tucked away in the closet around 65°F, and provided a decent primary fermentation, i was going to add some oak and let it be for a year at least.

Right after cooling, I pitched a mason jar's worth of sour cake from a previous batch - which i allowed to secondary for about 9 months, after a primary with 1056 was done. I didn't make a starter (as i usually do) because i didn't want to alter the ratio of anything more than was already done. Also, i figured worse-case-scenario the sacc yeast might not be as active for this current batch, but there'd still be enough to show SOME signs of fermentation, but now i'm second guessing my rationale.

I want this to go really sour, so i was hoping the bugs would out-perform the sacc yeast present from the previous pitch, so my next thought is to pitch another pack of Roeselare. But, if you guys have experience with that blend acting somewhat slowly, i'll let it be.

Any thoughts?

9 months might have killed off most of the sach, it could take a bit for it to build up a decent sized active culture. Not 100% on that though.

The first Lambic I did just pitching the WYeast blend didn't get going for four days, and never tasted right. Since then I always pitch a known healthy culture of ale yeast along with my bugs in primary.

The acid and alcohol in your other beer was bad news for the Sacch. If you have some dry yeast or something I'd toss it in along with some bottle dregs.

Oldsock said:

The first Lambic I did just pitching the WYeast blend didn't get going for four days, and never tasted right. Since then I always pitch a known healthy culture of ale yeast along with my bugs in primary.

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That's bad news for me, That's pretty much what I did exactly in November with a brown ale of around 1.045. I've been adding dregs from Jolly Pumpkin, and Cantillon, so hopefully that will help out.

Could you elaborate on what didn't taste right about it? I'm curious.

I'm a big fan of your blog by the way.

yellowthere said:

Could you elaborate on what didn't taste right about it? I'm curious.

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It had a weird almost resiny-pine garbage aroma that I've never smelled in another beer. I blended 1 gallon of it into 4 gallons of a Flemish pale and after a few months it took over that beer as well. So it seems like it must have been a microbial thing.

Oldsock said:

It had a weird almost resiny-pine garbage aroma that I've never smelled in another beer. I blended 1 gallon of it into 4 gallons of a Flemish pale and after a few months it took over that beer as well. So it seems like it must have been a microbial thing.

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Man does that sound bad. I'm going to have to take a sample when I get home. I really hope that's not what is happening to my first sour attempt. Emphasis on "attempt".

Well, I don't have any bottle dregs so I ended up pitching a pack of rehydrated US-05, as well as 1000mL of the previous batch, which tastes & smells sour, and a fresh smack pack of Roeselare, so I'll see where it goes from here. Thanks for the quick advice, Michael.

So now that this has been sitting for over a month in the primary, i'm contemplating when to transfer to a secondary carboy for long term aging (with an oak dowel). Do the benefits of transferring early outweigh the risks of over oxygenating at this point? Would i be better served to make the transfer further down the road? I want to avoid any yeast-related harsh flavors in the long run, but at the same time i don't want 5gal of nail polish remover from over-oxygenation.

Just transfer it IMO. Purge your carboy with CO2 and transfer into it. Way better than yeast autolysis issues I would say and the chances of over oxygenation are far less than autolysis if you leave it on the original cake.