Consecration kit from MoreBeer

I racked the Consecration over to secondary on top of the currants today and topped it off with most of a bottle of good Cabernet. Looks pretty good. After that, I brewed an oud bruin and poured it in on the old yeast cake that was left in primary. Tossed in the dregs from a couple of bottle of Madrugada Obscura and called it a day.

I've read through this entire thread before I got the ingredients, and again today. Couldn't get the kit from MoreBeer, but followed the recipe posted. I think that the Wyeast Abbey II ale naturally finishes out as 1.016, as after three weeks in primary, my beer finished there as well. Racked to secondary over the 2 lb currents and added brett trois I had from a previous beer in my fridge (resurrected in 1/2L starter).

Any tips on how much wood / Cab Sav I should add once I get the right sourness? Got toasted French Oak chips and a decent bottle of Cab Sav. Should I boil the chips first?

The kit comes with pieces of barrel staves, about 2 oz. IIRC. There were 5 pieces approximately 1/5" thick. The inside of the stave had a wine ring that had penetrated into the wood maybe 3/8", so very little actual wine with the kit. However, I took a growler of mine to our club meeting the other night and most people commented on the "red wine" character.

I left my kit on the oak for 2 months and to me it's very similar to Consecration. Tartness is less in mine, and measurable with a .2 pH difference. Other than that it's very close to the real thing.

BTW, at room temp. using Abbey Ale II, mine went to 1.012 very quickly. I then added the currants, and Roselare along with a quart of starter wort into a fermentation pail overnight before racking the beer the next morning. That may not have been necessary, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Thanks!

Did you bottle condition? If so did you use wine yeast? So since you brought a growler, I am thinking that you kegged.

I would like to add some wine character. I am thinking about simply adding a splash of wine. A friend of mine makes wine,I might add some oak to that as get it back from him to add to my beer.

TD


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hllywd said:

The kit comes with pieces of barrel staves, about 2 oz. IIRC. There were 5 pieces approximately 1/5" thick. The inside of the stave had a wine ring that had penetrated into the wood maybe 3/8", so very little actual wine with the kit. However, I took a growler of mine to our club meeting the other night and most people commented on the "red wine" character.



I left my kit on the oak for 2 months and to me it's very similar to Consecration. Tartness is less in mine, and measurable with a .2 pH difference. Other than that it's very close to the real thing.



BTW, at room temp. using Abbey Ale II, mine went to 1.012 very quickly. I then added the currants, and Roselare along with a quart of starter wort into a fermentation pail overnight before racking the beer the next morning. That may not have been necessary, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.

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How long did this take for you from start to finish?

I racked my batch of Consecration onto currants on 1/27. There wasn't much headspace left, but it looked like it would be enough. As the currants floated to the top and secondary fermentation started up, it ended up filling up the whole carboy. This is my first try at Consecration, so I used my thief to draw off enough to drop the level down a little bit. And to taste it. After a little more than five weeks, it only has a faint sour going. There is still a distinct rich, sweet flavor from the currants too--especially since I drew it off from the fruit-heavy top of the carboy. But I'm getting a distinct brett aroma already--cherries and leather. It's pretty darned good now--can't wait to see what it will be like in another year or so.

Kits are back in stock!

thrillhouse said:

Kits are back in stock!

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Ordered another one 1st thing this morning, I need to use my ECY! More importantly, after our club meeting last week, I'm afraid the first batch isn't going to last...

BTW - I have tried to make samples of the first batch a little more tart using some lactic acid. What I've found is that the quality of the tartness, for lack of a better description is not the same as real Consecration. I'm going to leave it alone.

TrickyDick said:

Thanks!

Did you bottle condition? If so did you use wine yeast? So since you brought a growler, I am thinking that you kegged.

I would like to add some wine character. I am thinking about simply adding a splash of wine. A friend of mine makes wine,I might add some oak to that as get it back from him to add to my beer.

TD


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Kegged. The kit as it is has a big wine character. I don't think any wine addition is necessary, but I don't see why it would hurt either.

Thanks! I didn't get the kit, i did it my own way, using I for here.

Not having access to the cab stained oak I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I may blend in some wine into the whole carboy to taste, maybe 1/2 to 1 tsp at a time. I'm wanting to bottle this due to fear of bug contamination in beer lines, etc, as I cannot easily replace the lines. I might try bottle conditioning with a wine yeast, which could add some wine character as well. Maybe I can snag some grape must but seems unlikely. I could potentially rack into a secondary being used for wine without rinsing the secondary, rack into that with some bottling priming sugar, and bottle directly from the secondary. I'm still a long ways off from that step though...


Thanks

TD


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Gothic_Horror said:

How long did this take for you from start to finish?

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Brewed 9/23/2012, racked it out of the secondary pail and off the currants, into a Better Bottle with the barrel chunks during the 1st half of November 2013 (I don't remember the exact date right now) and left it alone until 1/16/2014 when I kegged it. At 16 months the FG was .996.

Just ordered my second kit. It will be fermented start to finish with ECY BugCountry.

thrillhouse said:

Kits are back in stock!

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Added this kit to my cart this morning, then went through the checkout process and the page hung during payment. Called, and the kit apparently sold out during my checkout process. There's nothing they can do :smack:

Any idea how often these go back on sale?

Seems like every couple of months. And I always get the in-stock alert at 2am central...

thatjonguy said:

Seems like every couple of months. And I always get the in-stock alert at 2am central...

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Well that's too bad. Really, really wanted to get started on this.. but I guess it's better than yearly.

I also got the email at 2am, but didn't order quick enough. Double smack for me :smack: :smack:

Why wait for the kit? All the info you need is in this thread...


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FredTheNuke said:

Why wait for the kit? All the info you need is in this thread...

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Convenience.. and the barrel chunks.

ja09 said:

Convenience.. and the barrel chunks.

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My comment will probably be a little controversial, but IMO the barrel pieces aren't that big of a deal. Most people seem to use them for a much shorter period of time than I did, but even in the last 2 months if they do still have RR bugs, most of the work is done. The little bit of wine infused in them is fairly inconsequential, again IMO. The oak flavor is the more important aspect of the addition. I'll stop short of calling the "authentic barrel chunks" a gimmick...

The sticking point for me is the currants. The packages are labeled "dried black currants". 2 lbs of "dried black currants" are nearly the cost of the kit from what I've found. The included fruit is a significant contributor to the final product, the wine character specifically. I am going to freelance on another batch using a different local fruit that's more cost effective. I'll be using ECY BugFarm on that batch.

When I made my batch I doubled up and brewed a 10 gallon batch. Half got the MoreBeer kit's currants and oak chunks, the other half got american oak cubes and zante currants I bought at the store. The 'MoreBeer' batch got quite a bit of dialectal developing in it after the addition of the oak. The other did not. YMMV.

ja09 said:

Convenience.. and the barrel chunks.

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Conveniently buy 3 small chunks (2oz total) of American oak at your LHBS along with some grain. Boil in clean water for 10 minutes to cut down the oak strength. Put it in a glass jar and fill with a few inches of a decent but not high end Cabernet Sauvignon. Microwave it for 3-4 minutes (not quite boiling but VERY close). Let sit until cool to the touch. Cubes ready!!! if you want to infuse even more Cab microwave again for 3-4 minutes. This is a method used on a lot on distilling sites to quickly age whiskey and bourbon in glass (taboo to discuss in detail here but the process is NOT taboo - very good idea)! Soak for a few more weeks if you'd like - one key thing to the wine absorbing is the changes in temperature so cycle it a bit (fridge, counter, sunny spot, microwave, etc.).

Amazon has Sunmaid Zante Currants pretty cheap.

hllywd said:

Brewed 9/23/2012, racked it out of the secondary pail and off the currants, into a Better Bottle with the barrel chunks during the 1st half of November 2013 (I don't remember the exact date right now) and left it alone until 1/16/2014 when I kegged it. At 16 months the FG was .996.

Just ordered my second kit. It will be fermented start to finish with ECY BugCountry.

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Good show!

Over the weekend I asked a National Judge to rate a sample of mine. He scored it at 39. Commented the sourness suited him, but might be a little "soft" or "muted" for some sour enthusiasts. Another club member originally from the Santa Rosa area recognized the flavor without being told what it was. Fairly promising comments IMO!

I'm 4.5 months in, and although it's quite tasty I'm wondering if I need to toss some more bugs in. I pitched Brett L 3.5 months ago and Roeselare 1.5 months ago. No signs of a pellicle, and I'm not getting any hints of funk or tartness.

I have a bottle of Consecration in the fridge, so I'll probably at the very least toss the dregs from it into the carboy.

italarican said:

I'm 4.5 months in, and although it's quite tasty I'm wondering if I need to toss some more bugs in. I pitched Brett L 3.5 months ago and Roeselare 1.5 months ago. No signs of a pellicle, and I'm not getting any hints of funk or tartness.

I have a bottle of Consecration in the fridge, so I'll probably at the very least toss the dregs from it into the carboy.

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Did you mash at a high enough temp to ensure the bugs have something to munch on?

FredTheNuke said:

Did you mash at a high enough temp to ensure the bugs have something to munch on?

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I used the extract kit and steeped the specialty grains at 160 for 45 minutes.

I pitched the Abbey yeast on brew day and waited one month to add the currants and Brett L in the secondary. I pitched the Roeselare two months later (New Year's Day).

I'm thinking about adding Consecration dregs and an addition batch of currants hoping that would give the bugs some food. This is my first sour, so I'm new to this part.

Don't worry about the lack of a pellicle. I pitched belgian yeast, then Brett L after 2 weeks, then roselaere after 2 months. I also flushed the headspace with CO2. No pellicle......until around the 9 month mark and that's only because I was letting O2 in by opening the cap. I have zero experience with sours before this one (I'm not even sure I like them that much!). It's been 13 months and I'm afraid to bottle it. Think I'm gonna get to it in a couple of weeks

Sometimes (particularly with the extract batches) the bugs won't have enough food after the Belgian yeast and Brett gets to it. As the pH level drops in the beer and the bugs start to become the only living yeast / bacteria left, you may want to consider making a 1-2L "starter" (more like "finisher") to provide sugar for the bugs. They'll be the only ones capable of eating this fresh dose of sugar, as most of the Saccharomyces will not be able to function in those pH / alcohol levels.

As a side note - Vinny uses wine yeast to bottle condition his sour beers, as they are very adept at fermenting in high alcohol / low pH environments. While you will be getting some bugs in there, you'll also be introducing wine yeast which may or may not ferment some of your remaining sugars. Just something to think about!

Cheers,
Matt

mors said:

When I made my batch I doubled up and brewed a 10 gallon batch. Half got the MoreBeer kit's currants and oak chunks, the other half got american oak cubes and zante currants I bought at the store. The 'MoreBeer' batch got quite a bit of dialectal developing in it after the addition of the oak. The other did not. YMMV.

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I doubled mine up also, but not the more beer kits, and did half with the roeselare blend right out of the gates.

What the heck is dialectal?

Thought the thread debunked black currants as really being the Zante currants?

TD


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Jipper said:

Sometimes (particularly with the extract batches) the bugs won't have enough food after the Belgian yeast and Brett gets to it. As the pH level drops in the beer and the bugs start to become the only living yeast / bacteria left, you may want to consider making a 1-2L "starter" (more like "finisher") to provide sugar for the bugs. They'll be the only ones capable of eating this fresh dose of sugar, as most of the Saccharomyces will not be able to function in those pH / alcohol levels.

As a side note - Vinny uses wine yeast to bottle condition his sour beers, as they are very adept at fermenting in high alcohol / low pH environments. While you will be getting some bugs in there, you'll also be introducing wine yeast which may or may not ferment some of your remaining sugars. Just something to think about!

Cheers,
Matt

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Any suggestions on a bottling yeast? I think I saw "rock pile" wine yeast somewhere along the way. I know its specific wine grape growing region in California somewhere, but I know nothing of specific wine yeasts, and was not able to find any detail on this...




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TrickyDick said:

I doubled mine up also, but not the more beer kits, and did half with the roeselare blend right out of the gates.

What the heck is dialectal?

Thought the thread debunked black currants as really being the Zante currants?

TD


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Sorry seems something went crazy on the spell check on my tablet lol. That was suppose to be diacetyl. Yes. I said Zante currants...

A couple of days ago I began the process of making this beer. I didn't buy the kit from morebeer, but I've used this thread to create my recipe. I hit my OG right on 1.074 and I just checked the gravity today and it's at 1.020 so I began cold crashing to get ready to rack to secondary. I just took a look at the Zante Currants that I bought and the packaging says there is a small amount of oil on the fruit. Is there any way I can get rid of this? I thought maybe boiling them would work, or should I just try to find a new source of currants?

Hmm. I used sunmaid brand in the yellow box, it was all I could find.

I pitched a bit of dregs from a commercial sour into my split batch done with the blend right up front last night.

As far as adding the oak, I bought stave pieces French oak medium, maybe medium plus toast, can't recall, from morebeer.com. How many should I use, and for how long? Will these fit into the neck of my better bottle? Seems I may need to split them in half for ease of removal.

Also noticed, some funky stuff on top of the currants which are still floating, where they are exposed to air. I think this is a good sign!

Also, any suggestions on when to seal with solid bung?

Lastly, I used my 5L starter and racked about 1.5 L of beer into it when I racked into the secondary better bottles. The primary buckets held more beer than the carboys would hold and I didn't want to waste it. I dosed it with some currants too. It has a foam plug in it, so has been exposed to oxygen. It has a ring of scuzzy gunk along the flask wall. Also a good sign I think.

TD



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Scored 39 at Wizard of Saaz, did not place out of 22 entries in the class.

So I have patiently waited about 15 months. I tasted it last night and it's time. I am going to add the oak for about a week or two then bottle. I am debating on making a stout the same day and dumping it right in the carboy the Consecration comes out of. I have very little experience with sours. I just hate to waste all the bugs. What concerns should I have?

av8er79 said:

So I have patiently waited about 15 months. I tasted it last night and it's time. I am going to add the oak for about a week or two then bottle. I am debating on making a stout the same day and dumping it right in the carboy the Consecration comes out of. I have very little experience with sours. I just hate to waste all the bugs. What concerns should I have?

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Main concern I would have is if you have enough yeast to ferment the wort. Why not get your stout close to FG and then secondary it on the consecration trub?

Also pitch some fresh sacc cerv and you'll be GTG!!!

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That sounds safer gothic horror. Fred the Nuke decode sacc cerv for a sour noob?

av8er79 said:

That sounds safer gothic horror. Fred the Nuke decode sacc cerv for a sour noob?

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It means brewers yeast. The stuff you pitch for regular fermentations. What was in there is likely dead from the pH and alcohol and will not be able to participate in the fermentation of the next beer.

TD


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Brett is a yeast and can ferment, but sacc is best at converting sugars into beer. That's is reason why the process is usually primary first with sacc and then secondary with bugs. Sacc will reach a point where it will no longer ferment and then the bugs will take over and do work.

But you must leave them some food by mashing high of adding maltodextrin which bugs can ferment.

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italarican said:

I'm 4.5 months in, and although it's quite tasty I'm wondering if I need to toss some more bugs in. I pitched Brett L 3.5 months ago and Roeselare 1.5 months ago. No signs of a pellicle, and I'm not getting any hints of funk or tartness.

I have a bottle of Consecration in the fridge, so I'll probably at the very least toss the dregs from it into the carboy.

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From what I understand the only beer they bottle with bugs is Supplication, the rest just get WLP530 or similar at bottling. Not to say you won't pick up a few bugs from it but I pitched some Supplication dregs a few months ago and my Consecration clone finally took a turn toward sour.