Finished reading the book. Thanks for the wonderful book! I found it to be very well written and easy to understand, and very direct. I liked that you included some insights and partial recipes from commercial breweries, not necessarily that I am looking for making any specific clones at the moment. I especially like the chapter about commercial souring methods, and comparing how each brewery has it differences in production.
I did have a couple questions (again), and this seems to be an appropriate place to ask.
I see in the Spontaneous Fermentation chapter, you briefly discuss another commercial sour producer, Jester King. I am sure it was difficult to determine which commercial breweries to include in the commercial souring methods, and which to exclude when narrowing down the content for the book. I am wondering if you are able to elaborate a little more about the souring methods used by Jester King however. From what I have gleaned, their methods appear similar to Allagash- saision 1º fermentation (presumably in stainless), add cultured wild yeast for secondary fermentation (presumably in barrels). The three wild isolates they use at JK are unspecified, but in my limited tastings it seems there is definitely a farmhouse "funk" beyond what I would expect in a clean saison strain. I think Brett is a safe assumption therefore, especially considering the use of barrels. Their bottles appear to indicate presence of bacteria, presumably lactobacillus and pediococcus. The specific strains are unknown, but one could simply use bottle dregs. I am wondering if there are any other quirks to their process that you might be aware of.
I think that I'd like to try brewing a basic flemish red after reading your inspiring book. On page 311, you give a recipe. The recipe includes two yeasts and dregs. I cannot determine the intended use of each yeast, and was wondering if you could clarify? I am predicting that the ESB yeast would be for primary fermentation, and then the dregs and the Roeselare Blend would be added to the secondary with the oak cubes (or into a barrel if you have one).
I have read (not sure where) that re-using Roeselare Blend from a previous fermentation provides more pronounced funk and sour attributes than the initial use produces. I currently have a strong stout that has been soured (1º fermentation with Roeselare pitched from a smack pack) and is now in a secondary vessel aging about 8 months old now. I am contemplating racking that onto some cherries/raspberries possibly for 2-3 months to add some additional flavors and gain access to the yeast cake for souring another beer - the Flemish Red recipe from your book. I wonder if you would advise simply racking onto the entire yeast cake, or only a portion of the yeast cake? I know that for clean beers, using the entire cake would be grossly overpitching, but I am not certain if in a secondary fermentation sour beer, if there would be any negative consequences.
My last question is in regards to acquiring used barrels, aged hops, and sour cherries. Any general advice about where to look (online?) for this stuff? I assume that most commercial breweries (and homebrewers) use canned sour cherries unless that have the good fortune of having a local sour cherry orchard.
Thanks!
TD
