SumnerH
Well-Known Member
So I'm brewing up a couple of sours soon.
#1 is the more interesting; I'd like to do a Oude Bruin with the plan to add sour cherries to secondary in a few months. I've got a recipe together. Bugs will be roeselaire + the dregs of a Lost Abbey Red Poppy and a couple of other sours. I have a few questions:
a) Should I pitch sacch first and wait a while for the bugs, or should I pitch the bugs all up front? Jamil recommends waiting, but I get the feeling he doesn't actually like his sours to be all that sour. If I wait, should it be until x% attenuation is reached, or after primary is done?
b) What sort of timeframe should I be looking at? Is 3-4 months a reasonable estimate for when to add fruit, or should it be further out? Do I leave the fruit until the very end or eventually rack off of it?
c) Same as (b) but with oak--do I add oak at the same time as fruit, earlier, or later? I assume I don't want to leave it too long on the oak chips...
#2 is going to be a Saison mashed higher, with roeselaire blend pitched alongside the French saison yeast; one I'm just going for a little more complexity than a straight saison. My usual Saison recipe I mash at 148; does it seem reasonable to mash around 155 to leave something for the bugs, or should I go higher/lower? I was going to pitch both the bugs and yeast at the same time unless that sounds dumb.
#1 is the more interesting; I'd like to do a Oude Bruin with the plan to add sour cherries to secondary in a few months. I've got a recipe together. Bugs will be roeselaire + the dregs of a Lost Abbey Red Poppy and a couple of other sours. I have a few questions:
a) Should I pitch sacch first and wait a while for the bugs, or should I pitch the bugs all up front? Jamil recommends waiting, but I get the feeling he doesn't actually like his sours to be all that sour. If I wait, should it be until x% attenuation is reached, or after primary is done?
b) What sort of timeframe should I be looking at? Is 3-4 months a reasonable estimate for when to add fruit, or should it be further out? Do I leave the fruit until the very end or eventually rack off of it?
c) Same as (b) but with oak--do I add oak at the same time as fruit, earlier, or later? I assume I don't want to leave it too long on the oak chips...
#2 is going to be a Saison mashed higher, with roeselaire blend pitched alongside the French saison yeast; one I'm just going for a little more complexity than a straight saison. My usual Saison recipe I mash at 148; does it seem reasonable to mash around 155 to leave something for the bugs, or should I go higher/lower? I was going to pitch both the bugs and yeast at the same time unless that sounds dumb.