YB melange lambic, 4 months

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econ_guy

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Hi all,

I have a YB melange brew as follows:

6 gal:
8lbs wheat
8oz raw wheat
1 lb golden promise pale
8oz pils
8oz cara-pils

1 oz strisselspalt at 60 minutes

OG: 1.050
5 IBU

Primary was between 70-75 for a couple months, moved primary to cooler location (60-65) for another month or two. Nice white pellicle after about a month. It is crystal clear now, never got sick that I know about.

4 months in it tastes fantastic, complex sour aromas and flavors with subtle funk. It totally coats my mouth and the flavors really jump around, almost dancing around my mouth. I'm no expert, but I've sampled a fair amount of commercial lambics. This is comparable to those, and tastes ready to drink. FG now is 1.000, don't know ph.

Should I keg it? Age it? How will it evolve? Thanks for sharing!
 
This beer will continue to evolve for the next couple years. If you enjoy it you can keg it, but I personally bottle all my wild ales to see how they progress. If you can manage to wait to package you'll be greatly rewarded. At 4 months it's barely getting started. I usually wait at least a year.
 
econ_guy said:
Hi all,

I have a YB melange brew as follows:

6 gal:
8lbs wheat
8oz raw wheat
1 lb golden promise pale
8oz pils
8oz cara-pils

1 oz strisselspalt at 60 minutes

OG: 1.050
5 IBU

Primary was between 70-75 for a couple months, moved primary to cooler location (60-65) for another month or two. Nice white pellicle after about a month. It is crystal clear now, never got sick that I know about.

4 months in it tastes fantastic, complex sour aromas and flavors with subtle funk. It totally coats my mouth and the flavors really jump around, almost dancing around my mouth. I'm no expert, but I've sampled a fair amount of commercial lambics. This is comparable to those, and tastes ready to drink. FG now is 1.000, don't know ph.

Should I keg it? Age it? How will it evolve? Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Glad our Melange blend is working out so well for you. Both the Melange and the Farmhouse Sour Ale can produce some pretty quick turnaround sours with good complexity.

You have a couple options here. My recommendation would be to bottle half if you think its ready, but keep it at cellar temperature which should allow for slow but continued maturation of the beer. Drink one every couple months, and enjoy the development over time. For the other half, if you're into fruiting beers, try your hand at that with this beer. The right fruit in the right amount can add incredible complexity to a beer that underwent a mixed fermentation.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the input. Seems I have some decisions since bottling doesn't happen very often around here…

What is recommended for leaving the first batch on the yeast cake? Can I brew a second batch and use the same primary and yeast cake?

Thanks
 
Thanks all. Maybe I can split it. What are the guidelines on racking the beer off the yeast cake? What about dumping a new batch on the existing yeast cake?
 
econ_guy said:
What are the guidelines on racking the beer off the yeast cake?
Click to expand...
the same as with a regular/clean beer. i can't think of anything special you need to do, except maybe not use any plastic that you intend to use with clean beers in the future. anything soft (plastic, tubing, rubber, etc) should be dedicated to sours, once it's been used on a sour.

econ_guy said:
What about dumping a new batch on the existing yeast cake?
Click to expand...
yup, that will work. there is now a huge population of bugs in that cake so the second beer will sour very quickly.

PERSONAL OPINION WARNING: i would be concerned about the equivalent of over-pitching. for example, will that much lacto drop the pH really quickly, make life hard on the brett, resulting in a single-dimensioned beer?

something else to think about: that cake will contain little to no viable sacch. so you fermentation will be done by brett. given that brett is slow, lacto will have free reign for the ~7 days it will take the brett to get up and running.

personally, i would add some sacch and maybe a fifth of the cake to the new beer... but throwing on a beer on top of the whole cake will certainly work, and many folks like the results of this approach, so your call!
 
sweetcell said:
the same as with a regular/clean beer. i can't think of anything special you need to do, except maybe not use any plastic that you intend to use with clean beers in the future. anything soft (plastic, tubing, rubber, etc) should be dedicated to sours, once it's been used on a sour.


yup, that will work. there is now a huge population of bugs in that cake so the second beer will sour very quickly.

PERSONAL OPINION WARNING: i would be concerned about the equivalent of over-pitching. for example, will that much lacto drop the pH really quickly, make life hard on the brett, resulting in a single-dimensioned beer?

something else to think about: that cake will contain little to no viable sacch. so you fermentation will be done by brett. given that brett is slow, lacto will have free reign for the ~7 days it will take the brett to get up and running.

personally, i would add some sacch and maybe a fifth of the cake to the new beer... but throwing on a beer on top of the whole cake will certainly work, and many folks like the results of this approach, so your call!
Click to expand...

Overpitching could be a potential issue with respect to the final yeast character of the beer, but the pH drop shouldn't have a really negative impact on Brett. In Fact, there is research to suggest it can be beneficial from an attenuation perspective for some strains:

http://www.brettanomycesproject.com...pact-of-initial-concentration-of-lactic-acid/
 

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