Gigayeast Sour Cherry Funk GY150

I really should sample mine, it was brewed on 11-1-15. I'm curious if it soured enough, it was a straight GY150 pitch.

Ruckusz28 said:

I wouldn't go that high in ibu. Mine was in that ballpark and it took 4 months to sour noticeably

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My general experience is that Flanders style beers need 9-18 months anyway, so I've no problem with waiting over 4 months. I also really worry about over-souring at high storage temps. I think the science on it isn't settled, but I'd prefer to err on the less-sour side, then having to blend in a clean beer if it becomes too sour.

I brewed this on 5/6/16:

50% Pilsner
27.3% Bohemian Dark
9% Bohemian Wheat
4% Abbey Malt
4% C120
4% Chocolate Malt
1.7% Carafa III

No hops, just sweet 1.058 wort and pitched GY150 straight. It sat at 72* F and seems to have bottomed out at 1.026. That's right at 51% attenuation which is what Gigayeast claims for a 1.060 sweet wort on their website.

Sampled today and it's definitely tart and beginning to get complex fruity esters.

My packet was DOA. Zero activity after 30+ hours. Shipping mixed yeast cultures to tropical Australia is a pretty dicey proposition, but I expected that there should have been something alive in there. I'm hoping my LHBS gives me a refund on this one.

I brewed this in January, just bottled 2 gallons and racked 3 on top of rasperries/hibiscus. FG was 1.002 for the bottled portion. I plan on letting the raspberry portion sit another month then dry hop and bottle.

4 gallons:
4 lbs. white wheat
2.6 lbs. German Pilsner
1.6 lbs. acidulated malt
0.50 lbs rice hulls
1oz hallertau hops (60 min.)
1 Whirlfloc tablet (15 min.)
1.0 oz ground coriander seed (10 min.)
0.75 oz salt (10 min.)
gigayeast sour cherry funk

This was blended about a 2 months later with
1 gallon and aged in oak for 2 months

2lbs – Pilsner Malt
.25lbs – White Wheat
0.15lbs – Vienna Malt
0.15lbs – Acid Malt
0.15lbs – Flake Oats Malt
1/2 packet belle saison yeast
1lbs pinapple added to secondary after 3 weeks

dreamweaver said:

I brewed this on 5/6/16:

50% Pilsner
27.3% Bohemian Dark
9% Bohemian Wheat
4% Abbey Malt
4% C120
4% Chocolate Malt
1.7% Carafa III

No hops, just sweet 1.058 wort and pitched GY120 straight. It sat at 72* F and seems to have bottomed out at 1.026. That's right at 51% attenuation which is what Gigayeast claims for a 1.060 sweet wort on their website.

Sampled today and it's definitely tart and beginning to get complex fruity esters.

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I would confirm it is done. GY150 is a blend of 3 Brett strains and Lactic Acid Bacteria. My batch got down to 1.002 from 1.046 and I am not convinced it was done yet. I left mine alone for almost 5 months though.

Just got some of this, planning on making something along the lines of a mild with it

Finally tried my Tart of Darkness with gy150. Holy cow, it's tart. It was brewed on 11-1-15, I'm going to oak it and package soon.

A buddy and I brewed up a flanders red of sorts on 12-19-15. Did a week on US-04 then pitched the Sour Cherry Funk. Sampled it once and it smelled more sour than it tasted, but had great notes of cherry, leather, and of course, funk. Going to pull a sample later this week and will see how it has progressed. OG was 1.068

I had brewed a kellerbier a while back that produced some noticeable acetaldehyde. I tried letting it age out but it didn't improve, so I just racked the 2.5 gallons that were left in the keg and pitched a packet of GY SCF into it. The FG of my Kellerbier was 1.015 and the IBU's were high for sure, so I don't have high hopes for it, but I wanted to try something before dumping the beer. I will keep this post updated of any noticeable progress.

Questions for those who straight pitched GY150 into their flanders red. What mash temp you use? I was thinking 155 as the beer will be aging for a long time. How long did you let the beer sit in the primary before racking over to the secondary? also what fermentation temp did you use? I was thinking of primary in the mid to high 70's to let that latic acid get started right away on souring the beer.

I did a sour stout, but I mashed at 156. Mine was in primary for 10 months. Mine was at the low 70's in the house.

rossi46 said:

I did a sour stout, but I mashed at 156. Mine was in primary for 10 months. Mine was at the low 70's in the house.

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how it turn out? and what was your FG?

Oh, it was great. If I remember right, fg was 1.004

rossi46 said:

Oh, it was great. If I remember right, fg was 1.004

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Awesome! My plan was to ferment mine 2 months on the yeast cake and then rack over to a secondary and age it on some french oak cubes for 6 more months (or until the sourness level is where i like it). Reason being is i want to rack another beer on top of the yeast cake so I can get another sour beer fermenting while the first one ages.

Did you take any gravity readings along the way as you waited? As in taking a reading every month? I was just curious how fast the gravity dropped within the first few months.

No, I just ignored it for 10 months. Only thing I did was top off the air lock.

rossi46 said:

No, I just ignored it for 10 months. Only thing I did was top off the air lock.

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did you ferment in glass or a bucket? Just curious how "vigorous" the fermentation was. how thick was the krausen on top before falling out? did it rise up allot? Reason I ask is im thinking of using my 6 gallon carboy that i normally use for wine to ferment this sour and want to fill it with 5.5 gallons of wort

I used a speidel that holds 7.9 gallons. I don't think it was a very vigorous fermentation. Maybe an inch of krausen.

rossi46 said:

I used a speidel that holds 7.9 gallons. I don't think it was a very vigorous fermentation. Maybe an inch of krausen.

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How long after pitching your yeast did it take for you to see signs of fermentation? I pitched my last night in 1.060 wort with a pH of 4.6. (ibu around 7). I noticed that the manufacture date of my pack is from this past May - so roughly 8 months old. This has me worried some with the brett and lacto culture being so old, not sure if it has the same falloff as saccharomyces. If i dont see signs of fermentation after a few days I am tempted to go pick up some wyeast rosselare blend and pitch that.

I don't really remember. 8 months, not sure there, I would pitch some sac, bugs are probably ok.

rossi46 said:

I don't really remember. 8 months, not sure there, I would pitch some sac, bugs are probably ok.

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Ya I have been having difficulty finding information if brett has similar viability shelf life to sac. I was hoping not to pitch sac for this beer and just use the bret to ferment as my plan was to primary for 1 to 2 months then secondary this beer for i could rack some fresh wort on top of the brett/lacto yeast cake to get another sour beer started.

So I got a refund on my yeast from kegworks.com , must say they have good customer service. I was able to locate a 4.5 month old packet of GB150. Talked with giga yeast and they recommended a starter between yeast being between 3 to 6 months old. Opened the packet it up and there definitely a night and day difference between the smell of this packets vs the 8month old packet - much more funk and cherry tart aroma coming from the yeast itself.

its been on my stirl plate for 12 hours and looks to be slow signs of fermentation from the brett. I smelled the inside and it smelled nothing like it did when i opened the packet. very little to no cherry tartness and the funk smell was very musty. Is this normal with this yeast? I am going to let it sit n the stir plate for a total of 3 days and then pitch it straight into my fermenter, not sure if i should cold crash and decant.

I can't tell you if its normal or not. I did a direct pitch, no starter. I would cold crash and decant, but with the bugs, I'm not sure if they will fall like the yeast. Someone better educated will need to answer that.

rossi46 said:

I can't tell you if its normal or not. I did a direct pitch, no starter. I would cold crash and decant, but with the bugs, I'm not sure if they will fall like the yeast. Someone better educated will need to answer that.

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I thought the same thing. This morning my yeast starter was complete so i just pitched the entire 1 liter starter into the fermenter

I'm sure everything will turn out ok.

rossi46 said:

I'm sure everything will turn out ok.

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I think so. I got home from work 9 hours later and it was fermenting away strong. There was one tiny pellicle forming already. Once the gravity is down around 1.010 (hopefully within a month) I plan to rack the beer over into a secondary to age on some french cubes for 6 to 8 months while the beer sours.

just got this yeast in the mail and ill be brewing with it this weekend hopefully it turns out good

Eldan13 said:

just got this yeast in the mail and ill be brewing with it this weekend hopefully it turns out good

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Check your manufacture date. I was first shipped one that was 8 months old and when i pitched it no signs of fermentation for 4 days. I got a replacement pack that was 4 months old and made a yeast starter and pitched it after two days. Beer starter fermenting in less than 8 hours.

Good luck!

thanks i check when i get home didn't think about that

Just checked the date it says September 7 2016 so around 4 months old don't have time to make starter but sounds like your 4 month old pack did great with a starter hopefully mine goes well

brewed sunday afternoon and by monday night it had started already so everything is looking good so far. went with very low ibus about 1 or less and malts based off of the rare barrel golden sour with 1.050 og. ill keep updating as it goes

nice! being less than 5ibu's gigayeast's site says it should sour quick, but fermentation cant take up to a month to complete

i checked on my sour cherry funk on tuesday 2-28-2017 after 4 weeks in primary and it is at 1.008 from 1.050 and it is sour not too complex but im happy with it. its been in a 65F room the whole time and i pitched the yeast at 90f into the fermentor and let it cool down by itself from there. i will be kegging it this weekend and will be adding 5 gal of fresh wort onto the yeast cake to see what that does. im very happy with it so far. i would think it might get more complex as it ages but im not sure how long it will last once its in the keg though lol i will probably split up a couple gallons and add some fruit to those

Quick update on my usage: I taste tested my kellerbier turned sour project a little while ago and two things of note:

1) The acetaldehyde is gone as far as my tastebuds can tell.

2) It smells nice and tart, but upon tasting it was fairly weak. It's been about 7 months and there weren't too many sugars left for the yeast to work with so I juiced a pound of cherries and a pound of apricots, then boiled and added the juice to the mix to see what happens. I will report back some time in September.

Cheers!

Eldan13 said:

i checked on my sour cherry funk on tuesday 2-28-2017 after 4 weeks in primary and it is at 1.008 from 1.050 and it is sour not too complex but im happy with it. its been in a 65F room the whole time and i pitched the yeast at 90f into the fermentor and let it cool down by itself from there. i will be kegging it this weekend and will be adding 5 gal of fresh wort onto the yeast cake to see what that does. im very happy with it so far. i would think it might get more complex as it ages but im not sure how long it will last once its in the keg though lol i will probably split up a couple gallons and add some fruit to those

Click to expand...

Hello! Any updates? How did pitching on the cake go? How is the initial brew foing?
Thanks

Eldan13 said:

i checked on my sour cherry funk on tuesday 2-28-2017 after 4 weeks in primary and it is at 1.008 from 1.050 and it is sour not too complex but im happy with it. its been in a 65F room the whole time and i pitched the yeast at 90f into the fermentor and let it cool down by itself from there. i will be kegging it this weekend and will be adding 5 gal of fresh wort onto the yeast cake to see what that does. im very happy with it so far. i would think it might get more complex as it ages but im not sure how long it will last once its in the keg though lol i will probably split up a couple gallons and add some fruit to those

Click to expand...

Hello! Any updates? How did pitching on the cake go? How is the initial brew foing?
Thanks