StopTakingMyUsername
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I have about 50 gallons of different sour beers under my belt, and the best advice I can offer is to mash high (158-159 depending on recipe) harvest dregs from your favorite wild/sour offering, build it up, and continually pitch on top of the old yeast cake. That same community of microbes will continually (thus far) produce a sourer beer, quicker, and with more complex flavors each time you toss new wort on it. I tried using commercially available lactos and am finally getting some decent tartness a year after it was brewed. You have to be picky on which commercial brew you use though as some breweries condition with wine or champagne yeast. I chose De Garde and Jester King bottle dregs. I cannot speak for kettle souring, but I know commercial offerings tend to be one dimensional. My beers are well soured within two months at room temp, and only get better after some fruit additions.
Great point.
I have a brett/cantillon/casey mix that I've used in a couple saisons, and the saisons are getting progressively more and more tart and lemony.
"Kettle Souring" is what we're doing on our berliners - we mash super low so the FG is insanely dry, say 146 F for an hour.
Runoff, sparge, and collect into another vessel. Add lacto and let sit 48-72 hours (or until PH is right). Heat that vessel up and boil for ~20 min to kill lacto and add hops.
Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong?
Oh, and I've spoken with Trevor from De Garde directly - he does use wine yeast to condition at times, so be careful with those dregs
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