OK, so I've read through (mostly) 50 pages so far and figure it's time to chime in.
I brewed a roggenbrier on Sunday and decided to do a small beer from third runnings. I pulled about 2 gallons and boiled for 30 minutes adding hops at 20 min and at 5 min. I left it to cool in the Kettle and dumped half into one jug and half into another. Shook the hell out of them.
Preboil OG was 1021 ( didn't measure post boil)
Now for the fun part. I have been playing around with sourdoughs and had a raging starter made from wild yeast. Really sour stuff.
I threw a tbsp of sourdough into one jug and left the other one alone. Both received cheese cloth coverings. Next day, the sourdough beer had a good krausen that subsided the day after. It now has little hop islands floating on top. The beer with no starter added took until Wednesday (3 days) to start a krausen. And this things is a beast. Thick and creamy. Today, Friday, it's krausen is still thick and fermentation evident.
Aromas keep changing, but there are deffinate bannana (phynols?? Is that right?) hints in both. The sourdough beer has a slight brown sugar cookie smell. The non sourdough has a fair aroma of pear. Both also have typical Belgium yeasty characters.
I plan on leaving the sourdough beer open for its duration, as that's how I treat the sourdough starter. Just leave it out and open. I'm thinking, once the krausen on the nonsourdough falls, I will put an airlock on it. My goal is to sour these beers if possible.
No mold yet, but the moisture on the jar walls concerns me a bit. But well see.
I also have no idea if these picture's links are going to work. I'll keep trying.