I plan on a starting a 15 gallon solera project in a few weeks. The plan is to make a decent base beer transfer it after primary for souring. I made a really decent flanders red a year and a half ago and I'm thinking about using that recipe again since I know it's good. Or I could find a lambic recipe and run with that or make an oud brun. I'm leaning towards the oud brun. I have two options for innoculation. The first is a bottle of ecy flemish ale yeast. The other is a one gallon starter I made from extra running of an oatmeal stout. The starter is about a year old. It tastes amazing. I belive that was ecy01. My flemish ale yeast is from November of last year though. If I went that route should I make a starter for it? Also is one vial enough for 15 gallons?
starting a sudo solera in a sanke keg
- Thread starter Rys06Tbss
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vagabondat02
Well-Known Member
If you make a starter for the Flemish culture it will throw off the balance of bugs and make your pitch really Sacch heavy. If I were working with what you have on hand, I would brew this beer in two stages. First brew a five gallon batch and inoculate it with the vial of Flemish and let it sit for about a month. This will allow the Sacch to build up, ferment, and flocc out and allow the bugs to start building up. Since your cake will be pretty loaded with Sacch, you can then ferment another ten gallons with it. I'd also probably add some or all of that extra starter you have, in order to give the bugs a leg up. Once that batch has gone for a month I would combine them in the solera, and hang on to the cake for fermenting my refill wort down the road.
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Rys06Tbss
Well-Known Member
I'm just slightly concerned about the viability of the sacch since this vial is fairly old. I guess I can get some clean ale yeast that doesn't have high attenuation or I could just mash hotter.
vagabondat02
Well-Known Member
I would underpitch an Belgian strain, as it was most likely what was in the blend to begin with. The byproducts of Belgian yeast (along with many other things) are converted by Brett into the funk that want in our brews. Wlp530 is my go to because I have it sitting around all the time, but you could use whatever you have on hand; the flavor of the original strain won't be there by the time it's finished.
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Rys06Tbss
Well-Known Member
The only Belgium strains I have sitting around are saison strains. Hate to waste one in a sour that will end up more complex then a saison. Maybe I'll buy a smack pack and toss half in and grow the other half into something else. I used ardens in primary for my flanders red. I guess I could always start with a 10 gallon batch and split it between two fementors.
