Oud Bruin—WLP550 and/or Roselare

I bought the Austin Homebrew kit for Flanders Brown Ale, with the recommended White Labs yeast WLP550 (Belgian Ale). I also have a Roselare blend pack.

My plan thus far has been to primary for two weeks with the WLP550 and then pitch the Roselare in secondary.

Would it be a better idea to just pitch Roselare in primary? If so, should I rack off the yeast after 2-4 weeks? Or should I pitch WLP550 and Roselare in primary?

I've never used a bacteria before—this is kind of a test run. Any advice is much appreciated. Many thanks.

Roeselare already has a Belgian sacch strain in the mix, so you'd just be wasting yeast if you used the WLP550.

As for racking off the cake; that is entirely up to you. Some people do it and some don't.

I've never bothered to rack off the cake. 3 batches later and none have had any bad flavors. I don't think it matters any, plus it will keep your bugs all together for re-use as you see fit.

Just pitch the Roeselare. It should be slow to start. The mix only has a low population of sacc yeast to slow its start and allow the Lacto to grow before the sacc starts creating alcohol. It could take a couple of days to show signs of fermentation.

Keep hops low (less than 10 IBUs).

joshrosborne said:

Roeselare already has a Belgian sacch strain in the mix, so you'd just be wasting yeast if you used the WLP550.

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This isn't necessarily true. If you pitch the WLP550 before you pitch the WY3763, then you'll get a much more mellow sourness. If you pitch only WY3763, then you'll get a more pronounced sourness.

It's up to the brewer, really.