A few quick questions

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ruger988

ruger988

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I brewed a "lambic" of sort about 3 months ago and racked it on a cake from a Tart of Darkness clone (which turned out amazing.) Its just beginning to get some tartness to it now. A friend wants me to brew up a sour for their wedding and I'd like to use the same bugs on that. Which brings me to my questions...

If I rack the "lambic" off the yeast now, will it take significantly longer to finish than if I left it alone?

Do pitch rates matter as much with bugs as with sach? Could I just inoculate the new batch with a half gallon or so of the current batch and let it ride (have a little over a year before the wedding. Last, do bugs die out or die off after a certain number of generations like sach strains or can i pretty much use them indefinitely?
 
I don't know, but my educated guesses are:

- You will not make any noticeable difference to the final product of you current sour if you take it off the cake. Yes, brett supposedly feeds off the dead sacc, but you are 3 months in. You might want to try and take a little off the cake with the transfer.

- Pitch rates matter differently with different organisms:

............ Lacto - More the better for initial pitch.
............ Pedio - I think high pitch rates will help sour quicker.
............ Brett - Too much Brett will result in less 'Brett' flavors. Part of the Brett flavor is due to stressed reproduction.

Half a gallon (1/10th) would seem to be a good amount. Pitch a Belgian yeast a couple of days after starting the batch to give the lacto and pedio a chance to get working.
 
Calder said:
............ Brett - Too much Brett will result in less 'Brett' flavors. Part of the Brett flavor is due to stressed reproduction.
Click to expand...
interesting. i haven't heard about this before... i know that un-stressed reproduction doesn't produce a whole lot in the way of flavors (hence 100% brett beers being fairly clean), and we all know about brett transforming sacch byproducts into strong flavors. do you have any information or sources about stressed brett reproduction? thanks :mug:
 
Calder said:
I don't know, but my educated guesses are:

- You will not make any noticeable difference to the final product of you current sour if you take it off the cake. Yes, brett supposedly feeds off the dead sacc, but you are 3 months in. You might want to try and take a little off the cake with the transfer.

- Pitch rates matter differently with different organisms:

............ Lacto - More the better for initial pitch.
............ Pedio - I think high pitch rates will help sour quicker.
............ Brett - Too much Brett will result in less 'Brett' flavors. Part of the Brett flavor is due to stressed reproduction.

Half a gallon (1/10th) would seem to be a good amount. Pitch a Belgian yeast a couple of days after starting the batch to give the lacto and pedio a chance to get working.
Click to expand...

So I brewed up a 10 gallon batch of a pretty basic lambic recipe a couple weekends ago. Pulled off about a gallon and a half of a previous sach/rosealare/dregs/etc.. brew (including a good bit of the cake) and have seen hardly no activity. Should I pitch some fresh healthy sach to get things going or just let it ride?
 
ruger988 said:
a couple weekends ago
Click to expand...
as in 14 days ago or more? i'm pretty sure something has fermented that beer at this point, either what you threw in there or something that snuck in.

i would start by taking a gravity reading. i'd be worried if you get less than 60% attenuation.

assuming you've got 70%, i'd take a smell and then maybe a taste.

let us know what you find!
 

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