Yeast Bay melange

Hello all,
I found a vial of Yeast Bay melange blend in the meat and cheese drawer in the fridge (aka yeast cold storage). The best by date is Nov 20 2015. I was thinking of making a small 3 gallon batch of a simple sour. Thinking all 2 row malt and about 4 ibu of saaz hops. Does anyone think I should try and make a starter? Or would that throw the blend off too much? Maybe pitch it and let the bugs and brett do some work and hope the sacc gets going? Or alternatively pitch some sacc yeast let it go a few days and then pitch melange blend? Sorry for all the question marks just trying to cover all bases.

I'm no expert, only been brewing sours for a year, but I would pitch it as is and supplement with a small bit of sacc. The microbes in that blend are supposed to be pretty hearty.

Good Luck!

Cool thanks. I had read the same about the microbes just looking for reassurance.

If it were me I'd make a small starter just to wake it up a bit. When I used the Melange blend I made a starter just to make sure everything was active. I didn't aerate the wort. Woke up fine and pitched it into a golden wort that had been boiled with no hops. Within 1 month pH was 3.15. Very sour tasting and maybe a hint of butyric acid. Its roughly 9 months in - the butyric acid is now a wonderful pineapple (ethyl butyrate) and the acidity although technically still pH 3.15 is much softer/rounder. I consider it a nice bending beer but while explaining the beer to my buddy he drank his whole sample and enjoyed it. I will certainly be using it again but would probably go at least 5-10 ibus to try and get a pH 3.3-3.5 beer without having to blend

Cool, good stuff to think about. I may bump the ibus up a little. How long should I let the starter go for? Maybe make it the day before brew day just so everyone is awake but not necessarily growing too much so the blend doesn't get thrown off (any more than I already let it get)?

I did it the day before w no O2 so sacc wouldnt grow too much faster (well that was the idea atleast)

Cool, I think I will go with about 10 ibus and a "wake up" starter. I don't want it to be too sour as I'm planning on giving some of these as gifts to family and they like sour but not to much sour.

Sounds good. Here's what TYB says.

"If you want acidity quickly, we recommend keeping the IBU low (0-5 IBU), starting with a fermentation temperature of 70-72 ºF for the first few days and then raising the temperature to 75-80 ºF to encourage development of sourness (Lactobacillus, Pediococcus). For a slower developing beer that exhibits a rounded balance of funk (Brettanomyces) and sourness we recommend ~5-10 IBU, mashing on the high end, fermenting at 68 ºF and holding at that temperature for an extended period of time. "

wmcc75 said:

Cool, I think I will go with about 10 ibus and a "wake up" starter. I don't want it to be too sour as I'm planning on giving some of these as gifts to family and they like sour but not to much sour.

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I think that's a good plan if your looking for some tartness but nothing too sour like pH 3.1-3.2. I'd maybe for with 7-8 IBU though, especially if you aren't fermenting at an elevated temperature which will also help keep the LAB active.

I went 5 IBU with Melange on my first 5 gal batch. Next week I'm gonna rack that then drop a slightly different base beer at 10 IBU on top of that cake. I'll then rack that and forget about them for a year. If needed I can do some blending with the two beers.

I did throw in some dregs too: RR Beatificafion, Bruery Rueuze, Almanac Peche de Brettaville, and Orval.

Sounds like a good plan. Those Beatification dregs are loaded with goodies. I have some beatification from the last release and it is getting damn sour even at cellar temperature. Isolated some lacto from there and it's some pretty potent stuff!

Hey, sorry to bump, but I'm in a similar situation to the original poster. However I have two vials of this from a lucky dip deal with out of date yeasts. Mine went out of date in August.

I've got an 11l carbouy on its way that I plan to dedicate to "interesting" fermentations, and the first plan is to secondary ferment a saison with Brett. Once that's done I want to make something sour with my Melange vials, then leave them for a long while. It'll probably be nearly Christmas (if not afterwards) by the time I get round to it, so they'll be nearly six months past their best. Could I just pitch both vials, and avoid the need for a starter? Or both with a quick starter, like was suggested earlier in this thread?

sven945 said:

Hey, sorry to bump, but I'm in a similar situation to the original poster. However I have two vials of this from a lucky dip deal with out of date yeasts. Mine went out of date in August.

I've got an 11l carbouy on its way that I plan to dedicate to "interesting" fermentations, and the first plan is to secondary ferment a saison with Brett. Once that's done I want to make something sour with my Melange vials, then leave them for a long while. It'll probably be nearly Christmas (if not afterwards) by the time I get round to it, so they'll be nearly six months past their best. Could I just pitch both vials, and avoid the need for a starter? Or both with a quick starter, like was suggested earlier in this thread?

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Nick from The Yeast Bay here. Definitely make a starter, perhaps a small one (500 mL), followed by a liter. That should get the cell count up and get the cells metabolically active.

Cheers!

Thanks very much for your help! I'm looking forward to this one.