Sour Beers!

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z987k

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So with my new found absolute love of sour beers, I need to brew some. Specifically all of the Flanders and Flemish beers I've had are awesome.
The Duchesse De Bourgogne being the most recent holy **** this is an awesome beer.

So... where can I get some bugs from Belgium?
 
Yeah Bump.......I would love to know what goes into the fermentation and anything different that I would need to do to make a sour beer
 
Wyeast Roeselare Blend.

My Flanders Red is starting to get really nasty looking. It's been in the secondary for 6 weeks, and is finally showing some real activity. I fermented with Safale US-05 in the primary, then racked to the carboy, and pitched my Roeselare. Instead of an airlock, I used a toasted oak balluster in the bung hole. This lets a small amount of O2 into the fermenter slowly over time. It's supposed to emulate an oak cask. This beer takes some serious time, as it will likely be a year before I can drink it.

Here's a blog that I read. This guy knows his stuff when it comes to sour beers, and will answer any question you might have.

http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/search/label/Brett
 
I would just go with the Wyeast Roeselare Blend, I tried culturing a few different bottles of Duchess, with no luck, I think it is pasteurized.
 
anyone know where I can get pure cultures of say brett and lacto? I'm defiantly getting the roselare blend and I'm still going to try culturing the duchess. But for blends it seems all there is are the "belgian" blends.
 
all there is are the "belgian" blends.

Well, it just so happens that Brett is a wild yeast found in the air in Belgium. For a long time, all beers in Belgium were spontaneously fermented with the wild yeast found in the air. There are pure strains available packaged by Wyeast, but any beer you make with those cultures would resemble a Belgian style.

You should read "Wild Brews" if you're really interested in this sort of thing. Great book!
 
Well, it just so happens that Brett is a wild yeast found in the air in Belgium. For a long time, all beers in Belgium were spontaneously fermented with the wild yeast found in the air. There are pure strains available packaged by Wyeast, but any beer you make with those cultures would resemble a Belgian style.

You should read "Wild Brews" if you're really interested in this sort of thing. Great book!

Not necessarily true. Brett is found everywhere. Early shipments of beer styles like IPAs (which were shipped in wooden casks - not for flavor mind you, just storage) had small traces of Brett in them - same goes for imperial stouts. It's just a worldwide occuring natural yeast - nothing Belgian-specific about it.

White labs sells three common strains of Brett which are detailed on their website.
They also sell lactobacillus, but this is easy to culture from yogurt or as you would culture a sourdough starter.

As for Pedioccus, Wyeast sells a pure culture of that, as well.
 
found another really good reference: Brewing Flemish Red Ale, by Raj B. Apte

I have used this reference a lot. What I really dig is the charts.


Sour beers are a whole other 'realm' of fermentation if you will. Most are a pretty long involved process and need to be done with a good deal of care. I have yet to undertake a pLambic, but I have done many many other types of both soured beer and fermented foods. I just haven't made the time to do it....so many beers I want to brew.
 
Well, it just so happens that Brett is a wild yeast found in the air in Belgium. For a long time, all beers in Belgium were spontaneously fermented with the wild yeast found in the air. There are pure strains available packaged by Wyeast, but any beer you make with those cultures would resemble a Belgian style.

You should read "Wild Brews" if you're really interested in this sort of thing. Great book!

yeah I know brett is in a most all the belgian sours, but all I can find on many of the homebrew websites where you buys stuff as is these lambic blends. The roselare seems to be out of season and no one caries pure lacto strains.
 
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