Sour quad?

I started a quad a couple weeks ago that seems like it has stalled out. Its been stuck at about 1.050 for about a week now. I was going to try pitching some neutral yeast to get it going again but then i started thinking about the smack pack of roeselare i have in my fridge. Do you guys think that would make a decent combo? I was also wondering if my 63* basement would bee too cold for the brett and bugs?

The bacteria in that smack pack might not do well above 8%. At least that's the popular wisdom. Were you thinking about converting it so a sour brown?

I think you'd be better served just adding brett and foregoing the bacteria. Buy a beer that has brett in it and pitch the dregs. Then give it a couple of months.

There are some things you could try to bring that FG down, but I'll not go there since it wasn't your question.

passedpawn said:

The bacteria in that smack pack might not do well above 8%.

I think you'd be better served just adding brett and foregoing the bacteria. Buy a beer that has brett in it and pitch the dregs. Then give it a couple of months.

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From what I have read, the Pedio and Lacto do not do well above 8%, so would not get much souring.

Brett is good to about 18% abv, but I suspect it will take much longer than 2 months to do it's work.

Mikkeller does a sour quad called Sur Monk. I've never had it - it seems to be a quad with cherry lambic added but reviews seem to indicate it is a full on sour as opposed to a quad with sour notes.

I think your 63* basement may have stalled out your yeast too. Warm that baby up!! Agitate or repitch.

Thanks for the info guys! Since it seems like I won't get much use of the bugs with a beer already that high in alcohol I will probably just agitate and throw a heating blanket on it to see if that can finish it off. If not I might try some brett and a couple months of aging.

I successfully fermented a sour quad that finished at over 11% abv, but I pitched the bugs during the start of primary fermentation and waited a year before bottling/kegging. the beer wasn't sour six months in, which leads me to believe that the significant sourness was contributed by pedio or an aggressive lacto strain (I have heard lacto peters out around 7-8%, but haven't heard the same for pedio). I used white labs sour mix, roselare, WLP500, and bottle dregs from lost abbey's cuvee de tomme (another sour quad).

I have also had luck souring a golden strong that was at 1.02/7% abv before adding bugs - it developed a pellicle but didn't sour as much as the quad. I would recommend rolling the dice, pitching your roselare pack and forgetting about your beer for a year if possible - good luck!

ploppythesausage said:

Mikkeller does a sour quad called Sur Monk. I've never had it - it seems to be a quad with cherry lambic added but reviews seem to indicate it is a full on sour as opposed to a quad with sour notes.

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Same with lost abbey's cuvee de tomme

My experience with Belgians is they tend to stall for a while and then magical pick up again a week or two later. Agitation is probably your best bet, but avoid letting fresh air in, or you risk excessive oxygen pickup. Otherwise try a fresh active starter of clean ale yeast....or perhaps lager yeast, lager yeast can eat more complex sugars than ale yeast, that might be part of the problem.

I've had a quad going for 2 years now that was fermented with WLP530 and then added the white labs sour blend, it started at 1.090 and is at 1.004 now. It took about 18 months to sour at a constant temp of 68ºF. Its nice and tart now, I'm plan on bottling it in the next few months.

Be patient it will happen.

I soured a Quad fermented with WLP 530 and it stopped at 1.030. Brett L and Brux were added for the first year then dregs and lacto and pedio. It is nice and sour now, 4 years later. I waited over 2 years before bottling. CO2 was being produced for over a year and a half!!!

Sour on.

BW

B-Dub said:

I soured a Quad fermented with WLP 530 and it stopped at 1.030. Brett L and Brux were added for the first year then dregs and lacto and pedio. It is nice and sour now, 4 years later. I waited over 2 years before bottling. CO2 was being produced for over a year and a half!!!

Sour on.

BW

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Is it good enough to have the next one going?

Is it good enough to have the next one going?

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To tell you truth I have so much sour beer right now my main thought is how to bottle all of it!! I like the Sour Quad, but it has a lot going on. My next funky beers are going to more brett based with less sourness.

BW

B-Dub said:

To tell you truth I have so much sour beer right now my main thought is how to bottle all of it!! I like the Sour Quad, but it has a lot going on. My next funky beers are going to more brett based with less sourness.

BW

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Those are my exact thoughts. I just bottled a flanders red, and after I bottle 10 gallons of sour brown I think I'm done with with sours for a while! (anyone want a keg of berliner weisse?).

Last year I had two 60 gallon barrels, two 30 gallon barrels and a 10 gallon barrel all full of sours. At that point my wife and I were loving the lacto forward sours with a bit of brett background. My mistake was not letting the brett get a head start on the lacto for 6 months or so. All the barrels ended up very sour, but good. If you can believe it I was so happy last year when bottling came around and one 30 was bad. So I only had to bottle the 10, 30 and 20 of the 60!! Now I am down to the 60, a full 15.5 keg and a few cornies!! My plan is to finish up blending, put some on cherries and call the LHBS and see if anyone wants 40 gallons!!!

BW