18 month old lambic. No sourness or funk

Hey guys I've an all grain lambic that's been in the fermenter just over 18 months now. Had a taste yesterday and it's pretty grim. Zero sourness or funk . some slight acetaldehyde

Now it was my first sour so I fermented with us 05 before adding the wyeast roeselare. It also has cantillion and boon dregs.

I'm a bit disheartened because I have a 6 month old flanders red which tastes wonderful right now. Great sourness etc.

At this stage is there any point adding maltodextrin or is it a lost cause?

Just gonna give this a Lil bump.

Roeselare can be pretty weak on first pitch. Even moreso pitching it after a clean primary. Can you tell us a little more about the beer? How many IBU? I find it a little weird that there isn't any funk at all. What temperature have you been fermenting it at?

Also, what is the current sg?

Ibus were real minimal likely around the 5/6 mark. when I checked the gravity it was sitting around 1.009 and it's been sitting at an almost constant 63 degrees for the last year.

I agree the lack of any funk is a bit worrying. I also pitched the dregs from a cantillion and boon at about the 6 month mark. Still nothing. My flanders was soured with the yeast Bay blend and that's doing awesome.

Take some of the Flanders red and put it in there. If that one soured well then use it to get the other brew going. I like a good mix of bugs in my sours so I often grab a turkey baster from one and put it in another for some more variety.

beergolf said:

Take some of the Flanders red and put it in there.

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This. It's still got a few points to go, so I don't think you need to feed it. You might want to warm it up a little too.

OK that's a pretty smart idea! Will do that this evening.

63 might be a little low for the Brett. If you could get it into the upper 60's you may see some more gravity points drop off, which will likely increase the funk and sourness.

OK added a few turkey baster fulls of the flanders and moved the lambic up to the spare room which is a bit hotter. Will probably give it another 6 months if there's nothing at 2 years I might just call it quits.

18 months is nuts. I,isually,do,2-3 months. Just tried a sour 11 weeks from,brew day and it's got,plenty of sour character. Maybe try making a small starter from,sour dregs. More,microbe diversity will help the sour develop faster.

My Consecration clone never soured after 2 years. Fed it MD and added dregs. Dregs were the key. Roselare is known to be weak. What surprises me is the acetaldehyde is still there after all this time.

2/3 months? damn thats some strong microbes you got! I have a few bottles of boon/cantillion/local sours that I had planned on growing up for my next batch of lambic. I could always grow that starter up then split it.


I honestly feel the level of acetaldehyde I've got now would be pretty nice if the sourness and funk was in place I think they'd all complement each other. I do think I'm done with the roeselare strain though. I had a much better sour from the yeast bays Melange