ArrogantDusty
Well-Known Member
Some quick background... I've been brewing my Windrunner Saison now for a while. It was the first Beer I really dialed in and made consistent. It's very close to Surly CynicAle, about 6.3% though so a tiny bit lighter. My friends can't get enough of it and neither can I.
This summer (Mid July 2014), I had a couple weeks with little to do outside of work. I only had a few bottles of Windrunner left so I decided I should make a lot of it. I went to the local homebrew store and bought supplies to make 4 batches (5 gallons a piece). On top of that, I wanted to mess with it too.
I have no prior experience making sours or beers with brett but I did my research and decided I would try some stuff with these batches. Brew days were successful, yadda yadda yadda.
Here's what I did with each batch:
1 - Normal, I just used 3522 as usual. No questions here, I'm already drinking this.
2 - All Brett, I used a slurry of Wyeast 5526 Brettanomyces Lambicus and bottle dregs from Sour in the Rye (Bruery) and a Katy (2nd Shift).
3 - Sour, I used Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend and bottle dregs from a one off Surly Sour, Sour in the Rye and a couple of other local sours. A bunch of yeast strains were in this one.
4 - Bottled with Brett, I used S-05 and then bottled w/ 5526. Nothing extra here. Though I will note that this was the 4th batch I made in the same week and somehow messed up on measuring my hops and this one is going to be about 10 more IBUs. Oh well, it will still work.
My question for all you sour/brett brewing all-stars is how long I should give these beers before they are at their peak to star drinking? I have, of course tried them young early on but it has been a few months since I've touched them. I don't want to age them too long, but I don't like drinking most of a beer to come to the last few bottles and realize it just hit it's full potential. Ha.
This summer (Mid July 2014), I had a couple weeks with little to do outside of work. I only had a few bottles of Windrunner left so I decided I should make a lot of it. I went to the local homebrew store and bought supplies to make 4 batches (5 gallons a piece). On top of that, I wanted to mess with it too.
I have no prior experience making sours or beers with brett but I did my research and decided I would try some stuff with these batches. Brew days were successful, yadda yadda yadda.
Here's what I did with each batch:
1 - Normal, I just used 3522 as usual. No questions here, I'm already drinking this.
2 - All Brett, I used a slurry of Wyeast 5526 Brettanomyces Lambicus and bottle dregs from Sour in the Rye (Bruery) and a Katy (2nd Shift).
3 - Sour, I used Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend and bottle dregs from a one off Surly Sour, Sour in the Rye and a couple of other local sours. A bunch of yeast strains were in this one.
4 - Bottled with Brett, I used S-05 and then bottled w/ 5526. Nothing extra here. Though I will note that this was the 4th batch I made in the same week and somehow messed up on measuring my hops and this one is going to be about 10 more IBUs. Oh well, it will still work.
My question for all you sour/brett brewing all-stars is how long I should give these beers before they are at their peak to star drinking? I have, of course tried them young early on but it has been a few months since I've touched them. I don't want to age them too long, but I don't like drinking most of a beer to come to the last few bottles and realize it just hit it's full potential. Ha.
