First Sour - Summer Project

Today I'm starting my summer project, which will be the first Belgian recipes and first sours I've made.

Pulled dregs from two Trappist ales (one w Brett). Over the course of the summer, harvesting along the way, I'm going to throw 4 (2- gallon) split batches at each yeast: Belgian Pale, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad. Hoping to have 8 yummy beers (1 gallon each) and a Brett culture to keep active from now on.

Dregs came from Rochefort 6 and Orval ales.

10 hours later

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Brett adds interest to the brews, but really does not sour. But you have some nice starters there.

Orval dreggs work great and make a very nice brew. I use them often.

I'm really excited to see what will come of this. I could clearly taste the Brett in the yeast starter. It was very yummy!

I'm glad to hear you had good results with Orval.

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I'm curious what you're using for a starter. It's very dark.

Briess dark traditional LME I believe

generally, people will recommend you use light LME for starters. You want whatever is easiest for your yeast to grow. The dark extracts have a bunch of unfermentable sugars. Just a thought for the future

In other news, the dark traditional LME will be just fine...

Oh I poured off the beer from the yeast starter, as I've done many times in my pale ales. The amount of beer used to pull the yeast out was negligible

foltster said:

In other news, the dark traditional LME will be just fine...

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This.

Great project, all I can suggest is to document your fermenting temperatures.
The yeast you are using will definitely add its own character and that is dependent upon your temperature. I'm skeptical you are going to get much sour character, but I've never tried what you are doing so I'm interested to find out what happens.
Good Luck & Cheers!

madscientist451 said:

Great project, all I can suggest is to document your fermenting temperatures.
The yeast you are using will definitely add its own character and that is dependent upon your temperature. I'm skeptical you are going to get much sour character, but I've never tried what you are doing so I'm interested to find out what happens.
Good Luck & Cheers!

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Really appreciate the kind words. I'm catching some flack on the "sour" thing for sure. Seems that a true sour includes pedio and lacto too. Oh well I think I like the Brett best anyway. This was confirmed when we got Victorys Sour Monkey (Golden Monkey w Brett) and I liked it better than some of that Jester King stuff. Perhaps I'm more of a monk at heart ☺🍻

Oh as for fermentation temp, I'm shooting for 70° but use a low tech swamp cooler to keep out the Texas heat. I swap out ice packs twice a day so the temp is always going up or down. I know it's faulty but I make some killer brews in the cooler

Phase 2 of summer project tonight. Belgian Dubbel 2 ways: w and w/o Brettanomyces.

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Just racked Phase III, Tripel.
Looking @ 10.5% abv, which is ball park and the Brett tastes especially nice!

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6 of 8 brews of Belgian Brettanomyces project are done!

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I brewed the quad last weekend and exceeded my target OG by about 30 points, likely due to a long beta rest. Arrived at 1.12 and watching the temp to prevent esters / phenols from getting away from me.

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