Adding sugar / wort to sour secondary?

[alemonkey]

Edit: My apologies, I just realized I posted this to the recipes section. Please move or delete if needed.

Hi everyone,

Been a long time since I logged in, life got in the way and I gave up brewing for a few years. I'm back at it now and after a couple basic IPA's to get back in the swing of things I decided to try a sour Saison.

8lbs Pilsner malt
2lbs wheat malt
1lb Vienna
1lb flaked oats

.4oz Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 60 mins

Yeast Bay Wallonian Farmhouse III for 2 weeks of primary fermentation, starting at 68 degrees, ramping up to 78 over the course of a few days.
Yeast Bay Melange sour blend in secondary.

I ended up with 5.5 gallons @ 1.053 in primary. Today I racked it to secondary and added a 1 pint starter I made with the Melange sour blend, but I'm wondering if the bugs will have enough residual sugar to sour the beer. Gravity at the time I racked was 1.002, so it really finished out dry. Would it be a good idea to add something like Candi sugar to secondary? Or, maybe some additional wort. I'm brewing the same Saison recipe today and dumping it onto the primary's yeast cake, but this one will not be soured. I could collect a little extra wort to add to the sour.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Would it be a good idea to add something like Candi sugar to secondary?

Not candi sugar. You could definitely use this opportunity to add wort if you need to top up the vessel in order to reduce headspace.

0.4oz of hops is enough to slow down souring for a while. Give it some time, like 6-9 months.
If at that point it's not sour enough I'd suggest adding some maltodextrin, fresh wort, and/or bottle dregs (more specifically live dregs from hopped mixed sours).

 

[alemonkey]

Thanks, I ended up just leaving it as is since I don't have much headspace available. I was planning on waiting a few months to taste it anyway, so if it's not starting to sour by then I'll think about blending in some new wort.

FWIW, the starter I made with the Melange smelled incredible.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Thanks, I ended up just leaving it as is since I don't have much headspace available. I was planning on waiting a few months to taste it anyway, so if it's not starting to sour by then I'll think about blending in some new wort.

FWIW, the starter I made with the Melange smelled incredible.

Nice, I've always heard good things about TYB cultures.
I have a few different vials of TYB Brett in the fridge (not melange I think). Just need to figure out what to do with them.