adding fruit to 12month old sour

I started my first sour last year with wild yeast I harvested from a wild mulberry tree in my yard. 12 months now and it tastes fantastic with a hint of banana and slight sour. I want to add mulberry juice from picked mulberries that has been pasteurized, Should I add more yeast or just let it do its thing?

how long should I let the fruit/juice sit?

cheers!

LEt it go,
I would rack onto the juice, no need for additional yeast.
I generally leave my sours for a couple of months on the fruit.
you can probably shorten it, particularly if ists not a true sour ale.

is it still possible the wild yeast is still viable after 12months?
I ask this because this morning the air lock started to bubble again.

Did you add the fruit if so then yes that makes sense they will referement the sugars from the fruit addition.

I would have thought after 12months the yeast would presumably be dead. Does this mean I might not need yeast to bottle?

Thanks for the answers!
This is all totally new to me. Its my first wild/sour beer from wild yeast

Adding a small amount of additional yeast at bottling would be a good idea, but since you are experimenting, why not try some with additional yeast and some without?

Not a bad idea. See what the wild yeast vs something else does in the bottles and how long it takes to carb up. If the wild yeast survives I might culture one of the bottles up for another batch

Funkychef said:

I would have thought after 12months the yeast would presumably be dead. Does this mean I might not need yeast to bottle?

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sacch is likely dead, or in really rough shape; but brett would still be active in there. brett will carbonate your bottles, just might take a little longer than the usual 2 weeks with sacch.

When it comes to priming and bottling should I use a normal calculator or for long aged sours is there a different way of doing this?

When I've bottled longterm sours, generally they've carbed without additional yeast.

Generally Ales/Lagers have some co2 absorbed in them already.
So, generally I assume the beers are dead flat when I calculate teh priming amounts.

Its been a month since I added the Juice and just took a sample and its siting at 1.005. and a touch over 13 months from brew day... Is it worth bottling yet or let it ride to see if it drops more?

1.005 is pretty good, but give it another couple of weeks, then test again. if it remains stable (you can probably bottle it up)

Just a tip when bottling long term beers like this.... don't use the normal priming calculators as there will be less co2 in the liquid than a standard beer (MF suggests half or 0co2 in suspension)

What is a usual co2 level for sour or what value should I aim for to compensate

crusader1612 said:

Just a tip when bottling long term beers like this.... don't use the normal priming calculators as there will be less co2 in the liquid than a standard beer (MF suggests half or 0co2 in suspension)

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Good tip, but probably doesn't apply here. The fermentation of the fruit juice replenished the CO2 supply in the beer.

The thing about needing more priming sugar in long-aged sours only applies if there hasn't been any active fermentation for months. Personally, I've had good results adding 0.3 or 0.4 to my calculation to make up for lost carbonation. So if I want 2.5 vols, put in enough sugar for 2.8.

sweetcell said:

Good tip, but probably doesn't apply here. The fermentation of the fruit juice replenished the CO2 supply in the beer.

The thing about needing more priming sugar in long-aged sours only applies if there hasn't been any active fermentation for months. Personally, I've had good results adding 0.3 or 0.4 to my calculation to make up for lost carbonation. So if I want 2.5 vols, put in enough sugar for 2.8.

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Probably a fair point.
In sayingthat though, if its left for 3 months or so, the CO2 will dissipate again, so adding the additional 0.3 volumes will work.
Otherwise kegging is perfect, so you can manage it accordingly.

So its been 4 month since I added the mulberry juice. Tasted a sample and its yummo! Bottling time!
Another question. I want to save the 100% wild yeast and bugs its now at 18months old. Can I just put in a jar? I would like to use it again but the yeast is probably dead? Should I make a starter to try to revive them? Or next batch just pitch just some 05 or something?

Funkychef said:

So its been 4 month since I added the mulberry juice. Tasted a sample and its yummo! Bottling time!
Another question. I want to save the 100% wild yeast and bugs its now at 18months old. Can I just put in a jar? I would like to use it again but the yeast is probably dead? Should I make a starter to try to revive them? Or next batch just pitch just some 05 or something?

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Re-yeasting at bottling is not a bad idea. You can go with about 2 grams of wine yeast in a 5 gallon batch (like half or a third of one of those 5 gram packs). I think wine yeast is commonly used because it is alcohol and acid tolerant. There are a list of suitable strains on the milk the funk wiki: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Packaging

Yes you can save the dregs. I'd make a starter out of them right away to revive/freshen as much of the culture as possible before putting them to sleep in cold storage.

Well I added some of the cake at the bottom of the fermenter and put it into a started wort yesterday and it has taken off today. Super surprised it was still viable after 18months! Looks like I will be brewing with this wild strain again soon!

Funkychef said:

So its been 4 month since I added the mulberry juice. Tasted a sample and its yummo! Bottling time!
Another question. I want to save the 100% wild yeast and bugs its now at 18months old. Can I just put in a jar? I would like to use it again but the yeast is probably dead? Should I make a starter to try to revive them? Or next batch just pitch just some 05 or something?

Click to expand...

Last long-aged sour I bottled, I dumped the cake into a jar until brew day a couple of weeks later. It'd been in the carboy for something like 10 months, so on brew day I added a healthy pitch of Nottingham. Maybe the yeast in the cake was viable, but it didn't hurt anything to supplement it and make sure things kicked off quickly. Almost a year later, the new batch is dry and face-puckering sour.

The friend I brewed with bottled the day before we brewed again and just racked directly onto the cake, with no added yeast. His beer, likewise, kicked off and is progressing well.