bug country 2014

Brewed my batch back on 1-25-15. i transferred it yesterday out of my primary and into my 6 gallon carboy, i took a sample and it tasted amazing already really sour and taste of lemons with a beautiful fruity smell. going to let it age and then add fruit. this yeast blend is beautiful! i liked the taste so much i brewed up a potent gose yesterday OG was 1.070 and i dumped some of bug county cake on it and my second gen rosalare cake. i woke up this morning and my primary fermenter looked like it was about to explode. there was such a huge bulge i had to make a blow off tube. cant wait until these 2 beers are done.

I've got two vials of Bug County sitting in the fridge and I'm finally getting some warm temps in conjunction with free time this weekend. I've been wanting to do Consecration and Tart of Darkness clones. Is there any reason not to use this blend in primary with either of those?

Has anyone had success w/ BugCounty on a higher ABV sour?

Thinking of doing a 4+ hr boil, mostly pils batch for wine barrel aging. Sort of loosely designed as a cross between de dolle SNR and RR Temptation.

dcHokie said:

Has anyone had success w/ BugCounty on a higher ABV sour?

Thinking of doing a 4+ hr boil, mostly pils batch for wine barrel aging. Sort of loosely designed as a cross between de dolle SNR and RR Temptation.

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i'm wondering if the high ABV will suppress some of the souring.

idea: brew an average-strength beer first, have it primary with BC for a while, then step-feed it? or blend a lower (regular) gravity with a higher gravity beer, post-fermentation?

maybe i'm over-thinking it. maybe Al's bugs will chew through it no prob :rockin:

how high of an abv? if all goes well my gose should turn out to be over 9% with BC. i have read that someone brew an 11% with BC so it should pump through up to that if not beyond.

sweetcell said:

i'm wondering if the high ABV will suppress some of the souring.

idea: brew an average-strength beer first, have it primary with BC for a while, then step-feed it? or blend a lower (regular) gravity with a higher gravity beer, post-fermentation?

maybe i'm over-thinking it. maybe Al's bugs will chew through it no prob :rockin:

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I'm guessing the variety is diverse enough that there might be a few alcohol tolerant strains in the mix. I'm OK with letting it ride for a year or 2 to find out.

Jumpman said:

how high of an abv? if all goes well my gose should turn out to be over 9% with BC. i have read that someone brew an 11% with BC so it should pump through up to that if not beyond.

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Probably in 1.080 -1.090 range, with the assumption that it'll finish below 1.010 at some point.

dcHokie said:

I'm guessing the variety is diverse enough that there might be a few alcohol tolerant strains in the mix. I'm OK with letting it ride for a year or 2 to find out.

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i'm pretty sure at least one of the 4 bretts will keep chugging away until all is fermented, if not several. my concern would be if the beer will be sour enough. it'll definitely be funky, fruity, etc.

Today I tasted the first sample of a pale extract beer I brewed with this back on Jan 1st. Very tart with a lemony citrus flavor. A bit of buttery sweetness in the aroma. This batch is staying in primary and I didn't take a gravity, but the other two batches I have going were 1.008 and 1.014 when I racked them to secondary. I assume this one is somewhere in that ballpark. Flavor is very similar in the other two. The Flanders style sour I have going had a bit of strawberry flavor, I haven't detected that in this or the other pale beer I have going.

sweetcell said:

i'm pretty sure at least one of the 4 bretts will keep chugging away until all is fermented, if not several. my concern would be if the beer will be sour enough. it'll definitely be funky, fruity, etc.

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Well, I gave this a shot today. All pils grist, 11 gallons down to 5.5 w/ 6 hr boil. 1.090 SG.

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5 weeks ago I transfered my beer brewed with Bug County into secondary and saved the yeast cake by dumping it into a quart sized mason jar. It's been in the fridge since. It might still be another few weeks before a fermenter frees up. After 8 weeks in the fridge should I still consider using that yeast cake? What is more likely to be more prominent at that point, the souring bacteria or the yeasts?

A few nights ago I dumped the dregs from a couple of RR sours into secondary and grabbed a sample. I was surprised at how little sourness had developed so far. I didn't take a gravity reading and am hoping there's still enough for the bugs to sour it up nicely.

Is there an ETA of when the 2015 batch will be available?

j1n said:

Is there an ETA of when the 2015 batch will be available?

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unfortunately i believe it is released once a year in october/november.

in january i gave away the cake from my batch after i racked to secondary... lousy timing for you :-/

D-Train said:

5 weeks ago I transfered my beer brewed with Bug County into secondary and saved the yeast cake by dumping it into a quart sized mason jar. It's been in the fridge since. It might still be another few weeks before a fermenter frees up. After 8 weeks in the fridge should I still consider using that yeast cake? What is more likely to be more prominent at that point, the souring bacteria or the yeasts?

A few nights ago I dumped the dregs from a couple of RR sours into secondary and grabbed a sample. I was surprised at how little sourness had developed so far. I didn't take a gravity reading and am hoping there's still enough for the bugs to sour it up nicely.

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I have a feeling the ratio of bacteria to yeasts has more to do with what happened in the fermentation rather than being in the fridge for a couple months. If the batch you took the cake from was decently sour, I'd say it's a safe bet that you have a lot of souring bacteria in there. Depending on how long the first fermentation took before you harvested the cake, you may need to add some fresh saccharomyces to get the fermentation going. Although, if you just go with what you have, you'll probably get a much more sour beer in a shorter time.

I wouldn't worry about the ratios of yeast/brett to bacteria. They each work a little differently and will get the job done. Under pitching yeast in a sour can be beneficial actually. What's more important is the time. 5 weeks is not enough time to expect a sour beer. Try 6 months before tasting. I believe Al recommends a year but says it's worth it to wait 18 months. My method has been to give it a few months and rack it to sit for another year while I make another batch on the cake. The key to sour beers is to make new batches often and leave them alone. Once the first is ready, you'll then have a steady stream of sours in your pipeline.

sweetcell said:

unfortunately i believe it is released once a year in october/november.

in january i gave away the cake from my batch after i racked to secondary... lousy timing for you :-/

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Its all good. Patience is the name of the game when doing sours so ill just have to brew with something else til then.

masonsjax said:

I wouldn't worry about the ratios of yeast/brett to bacteria. They each work a little differently and will get the job done. Under pitching yeast in a sour can be beneficial actually. What's more important is the time. 5 weeks is not enough time to expect a sour beer. Try 6 months before tasting. I believe Al recommends a year but says it's worth it to wait 18 months. My method has been to give it a few months and rack it to sit for another year while I make another batch on the cake. The key to sour beers is to make new batches often and leave them alone. Once the first is ready, you'll then have a steady stream of sours in your pipeline.

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Assuming you break the pellacle and leave it behind when you rack to secondary. Does it reform in secondary?

mbbransc said:

Assuming you break the pellacle and leave it behind when you rack to secondary. Does it reform in secondary?

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A pellicle is basically just an oxygen barrier formed by the bugs. It may or may not form in any given sour beer at any given time.

Just like an airlock should not be used to judge fermentation, a pellicle (or lack thereof) should not be used to judge souring.

BGBC said:

A pellicle is basically just an oxygen barrier formed by the bugs. It may or may not form in any given sour beer at any given time.

Just like an airlock should not be used to judge fermentation, a pellicle (or lack thereof) should not be used to judge souring.

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I know. But I have a 4mo old golden sour with Bug County sitting under a pellicle. I've debated about racking off the yeast cake so I can get another beer on it but I'm tore on disturbing the pellicle. I did puncture it to steal 6oz of beer to inoculate a Flanders Red, but that was as brave as I could be at the time.

I was just curious of your experiences.

thx

Just putting in my experience here. I brewed up a "lambic"-style beer at the beginning of the year, 60/40 pilsner malt/unmalted wheat. Used the Wyeast cereal/lambic mash schedule. OG 1.045, IBU approx. 10.

I opened up the bucket a couple of weeks ago to check on it and found a bubbly, frothy pellicle forming. Color is a hazy golden yellow, somewhat citrusy/fruity aroma mixed with earthy barnyard. pH 3.96 so very lightly tart at this point. SG was 1.002.

I will probably leave it in the bucket until I'm ready to brew something else this spring/summer in which to use this cake. May end up holding onto this to blend with other sours or add fruit to it. Not sure yet.

mbbransc said:

I know. But I have a 4mo old golden sour with Bug County sitting under a pellicle. I've debated about racking off the yeast cake so I can get another beer on it but I'm tore on disturbing the pellicle. I did puncture it to steal 6oz of beer to inoculate a Flanders Red, but that was as brave as I could be at the time.

I was just curious of your experiences.

thx

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As long as there's not too much head space and there's a good seal (to prevent O2 pickup), it's probably fine to stay on the cake. I know some folks like to rack long term sours after 6 weeks (+/-) once most of the sacch will likely have flocced out.

If you're planning on aging it for an extended period of time (1+ years), you might want to rack it. Brett can process some dead yeast byproducts and you'll get some add'l character from that, but there's a limit.

There is absolutely no need to rack off of the yeast bed. Should you decide to to reuse the cake just make sure you carbon dioxide flush the racking vessel and then seal the top with an airlock. A pellicle is not necessary for a sour to develop

Well, I just got around to using up the last of my vial of Bug County the other day. I had done a big split batch a few months ago, but had about 50 mL left that I wanted to use for a 3rd batch. And it took until now to find time to brew it. So, that means this vial has been sitting in my fridge for around 3 and a half months.

I brewed on Friday, April 10th, and the brew day went smoothly. I wanted to do something to get more starches into the wort, and I had read about people putting some extra grain in the boil. I used up the last of my bag of 2-row to get my grain bill where I wanted it, but I happened to have some old-fashioned oatmeal on hand. So, I threw in a half pound of oatmeal about 15 minutes before the end of the boil. AND after cooling, I dumped all of the oats into the fermenter. Then I pitched the 50 mL of Bug County.

It got off to a slow start. When I looked at it this morning (approx. 36 hours after pitching), it had some small bunches of bubbles on the surface that made me think some of the bacteria or brett had gotten to work. I was half worried that the saccharomyces had died off and half excited that this beer would likely be super sour. But alas, there is nothing to worry about. The sacch kicked in and has now created a full and active krausen and the airlock is bubbling steadily.

I'll be letting this one sit for a good long while. Planning on at least a year. And I might also add some fruit to it at some point, if the flavor seems like it would match blend well with fruit flavors.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience with a combination of using this blend after it's been sitting around for a while and also pitching just a small amount of it. I'll try to remember to report back as it ferments and I take samples (won't be frequent, but I'll try to remember).

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Is slow clearing a norm for this blend? Feb 1 I brewed essentially a wit base with 50/50 pils malt and flaked wheat with a little rye and golden naked oats. Primary was in a 5 gallon bucket. After it died down I racked 3 gallons up to the neck of a 3gal carboy and then the yeast cake and remainder into this 1 gallon jug. Neither has cleared one bit. I'm in no rush, no plans to tuck into this until year end at the earliest. However the opacity surprises me. Any similar experiences?

Water was RO with 0.1g/l each of gypsum and CaCl which should give >50ppm Ca.

Quaker said:

Any similar experiences?

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yup. i attribute it to all the brett.

I brewed a lambic on 1/18/2015 with ECY20 - only used 8% wheat malt, 4% flaked oats, the rest barley.

Still pretty cloudy...

Wes440 said:

I brewed a lambic on 1/18/2015 with ECY20 - only used 8% wheat malt, 4% flaked oats, the rest barley.

Still pretty cloudy...

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Not surprising, check back on it in 6 months.

I started my Bug County blonde on 1/20/15 and it's still pretty cloudy. No pellicle yet. I took a gravity sample a couple weeks ago and it's down to 1.001 and has only a very slight lactic bite to it. I put it back in hiding and I'll check on it again at the end of the summer to see where it's at.

I have a few batches going, only the one I brewed in early December has cleared, the one I brewed early January looks about like yours still. I have a couple jars of slurry that are pretty cloudy as well.

Wanted to share my experience thus far with ECY20.

Brewed up a 11 gal Saison - 158F mash, ~9IBU, 1.056. Primary fermented with Omega Saisonstein's Monster. Once it hit 50% attenuation, we cold crashed for a day or so, let it get back to room temp, then racked to a 3rd-use 10.5 gal oak barrel (original contents were rum and then an imperial brown ale...lots of rinsing to try to mute the booze/beer as much as possible), and pitched the vial of ECY20. The idea behind cold crashing before full attenuation was to give more for ECY20 to chew on to develop its character.

Three months later and it's tasting very nice at 1.003. There's a strong, clean sour note, with hints of oak and brett funk. We decided to get the beer out of the barrel so that it wouldn't extract any more oak character, so we racked half of it into a corny to be force carbed, while the other half was racked onto 49oz of Apricot Puree into a glass carboy.

The kegged version is tasting really good while it's carbonating. It could use a touch more complexity and brett character, but hopefully the apricot version will continue to develop. I'm just amazed that after 3 months I was able to get a sour saison that I would seriously put up against many commercial examples out there.

TL;DR this blend really gets the job done

My bug county pellicles have been pretty subdued. I've found that it ferments pretty quick.

I brewed a 60/40 two row/wheat bug country February 1st. Its rather clear already and i think it has been for a while. My basement has been chilly though. I am moving out of state so I had to keg it for the move. It is surprisingly sour for being so young.

An update on my Bug County beer:

Brewed 1/20/15.
6/18/15 added 1oz of boiled hungarian oak cubes soaked in Dubbonet Rouge for a month.

8/1/15 It has a thick pellicle now. pH is at 3.39, smells like cherry juice, and it tastes sour with hints of stone fruit and vanilla.

Just took a sample of a beer I brewed back in January with this beer. Still very lemony and light bodied. a just a bit of earth brett funk in the background. aroma has a lot of hay. Pretty good beer but much milder in flavor than I expected. Unfortunately I dropped the bottom half of the turkey baster I use for sampling into the second beer I was trying to sample. The other two beers I have going with this blend will have to wait on sampling I guess.