Hi, I am a beginner sours beer brewer looking for advice.
I managed to brew a really nice sour and have been unable to replicate the results ever since.
I am looking for some hints or recommendations on what I could try next.
I harvested the dregs from a couple of bottles of a commercial beer I enjoyed and made a starter using a stir plate. The initial volume was 200ml and I stepped it up twice over about a week. Before each step I let is sit still overnight and decanted. At the end of the process I ended up with volume of yeast slightly below to what you find in a commercial vial.
The original commercial beer is very funky and moderately tart so I imagined the yeast was a blend of brett, sacharo and lacto. I pitched the culture directly into an all grain wheat/barley wort I prepared.
Fermentation started straight away and the beer sat in a plastic bucket for about 3 weeks before getting transferred to glass carboys where it stayed there for about 3-4 months. A pellicle formed both in primary and secondary. The beer may have been exposed to some oxygen during secondary considering the airlocks dried out at some point (no more than 1 week though).
Beer got bottled and sat in bottles for 4-6 months until drunk. The beer did great in competition and I personally think it is my best. What makes this beer special is the very interesting funk it developed, which is present in the commercial version and was very prominent in my brew.
The commercial beer I used is Rooting Around Summer, from Wild Beer Co.
I tried repeating the process using yeast I saved from the first batch (and stored in the fridge), dregs from my own bottles and dregs from commercial bottles. In all cases, I have not got much or any funk at all, the resulting beer has been good but has not come close to what the first brew was.
What could have happened during the first brew that made the beer so funky that is not happening now? What could I have changed that made the yeast not to develop the funk?
I initially thought it could be way I treated the yeast prior pitch. Now I am more inclined to think it may relate to oxygen exposure though I know this yeast will spit lots of acetic acid if too much oxygen is present (or there may be acetobacter in the pitch).
I emailed WBC to ask for advice on how to treat their yeast, but I did not get any reply. Hopefully they didn't get upset for harvesting their yeast.
Anyway, thanks for reading and any tips would be appreciated.
I managed to brew a really nice sour and have been unable to replicate the results ever since.
I am looking for some hints or recommendations on what I could try next.
I harvested the dregs from a couple of bottles of a commercial beer I enjoyed and made a starter using a stir plate. The initial volume was 200ml and I stepped it up twice over about a week. Before each step I let is sit still overnight and decanted. At the end of the process I ended up with volume of yeast slightly below to what you find in a commercial vial.
The original commercial beer is very funky and moderately tart so I imagined the yeast was a blend of brett, sacharo and lacto. I pitched the culture directly into an all grain wheat/barley wort I prepared.
Fermentation started straight away and the beer sat in a plastic bucket for about 3 weeks before getting transferred to glass carboys where it stayed there for about 3-4 months. A pellicle formed both in primary and secondary. The beer may have been exposed to some oxygen during secondary considering the airlocks dried out at some point (no more than 1 week though).
Beer got bottled and sat in bottles for 4-6 months until drunk. The beer did great in competition and I personally think it is my best. What makes this beer special is the very interesting funk it developed, which is present in the commercial version and was very prominent in my brew.
The commercial beer I used is Rooting Around Summer, from Wild Beer Co.
I tried repeating the process using yeast I saved from the first batch (and stored in the fridge), dregs from my own bottles and dregs from commercial bottles. In all cases, I have not got much or any funk at all, the resulting beer has been good but has not come close to what the first brew was.
What could have happened during the first brew that made the beer so funky that is not happening now? What could I have changed that made the yeast not to develop the funk?
I initially thought it could be way I treated the yeast prior pitch. Now I am more inclined to think it may relate to oxygen exposure though I know this yeast will spit lots of acetic acid if too much oxygen is present (or there may be acetobacter in the pitch).
I emailed WBC to ask for advice on how to treat their yeast, but I did not get any reply. Hopefully they didn't get upset for harvesting their yeast.
Anyway, thanks for reading and any tips would be appreciated.