Three New Gozdawa Sour Yeasts

[Protos]

Recently I got access to ordering Polish Gozdawa dry yeasts. In time, I want to try their full range and compare their yeasts to more familiar brands, like Lallemand, Fermentis and Mangrove Jack's. For now, I ordered Czech Pilsner, German W35 Lager, VLB Lager, W34/70 Lager, Scottish Ale, German Altbier, Bavarian Wheat and Trappist Rochefort. The source for Gozdawa yeasts is mysterious, some say they're just repacks of other brands, some say they come from some obscure German factory.

As a free bonus, the seller added to my order three Gozdawa yeasts not mentioned on the Gozdawa website and seemingly having no matches in other brands:
- Belgian Sour
- German Sour
- Weiss Sauerbier.
All three contain two species of microbes: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lachancea thermotolerans. Fermentation temperature suggested for all three is 14-25°C. From which I deduce, it's just good old Philly mixed with, I guess, Belgian Wit, German Altbier and I don't know what for Weiss, probably Bavarian Wheat.

I've never tasted sour beers and I poorly tolerate acidity in all my beverages and foods, but with such a generous gift I feel obliged to delve into the murky waters of sour brewing

 

[monkeymath]

Labelling sacch + lachancea as "Belgian Sour" is a bit of a heresy imho, but eh.

Don't forget to try Old German Altbier in a Grodziskie!

 

[Protos]

I believe, the whole Lachancea thing is a heresy, as no traditional sour style relies on it, being soured by Wild Sacchs, Bretts and Lactos.
Also, I read that the very first starting culture for Philly Lachancea was wrangled on a Philadelphia cemetery. Which sounds like a grossly disgusting source for anything food-related. I'd never buy it for my own money. But what I could do if I already have it for free?

When I saw the Old German Altbier on the offer, I recalled your suggestion in the Graetzer thread.
The yeast choise for my next Grodzisz is set!

 

[Protos]

I must say, the Gozdawa range looks quite intriguing.
Most yeasts in it seem to be our old friends from Lallemand and MJ: Scottish Ale behaves like M15/Windsor, reports on Bavarian Wheat find it very similar to M20 (not to Lal Munich!), Czech Pilsner is definitely M84, Lager VLB RH is S-23 etc.

But, what's German Lager W35 - a hot-fermenting Lager yeast which stalls at 9C and needs no less than 14C for a proper fermentation? Definitely, not Diamond/M76/Safale W34/70, as there is a separate option of Gozdawa W34/70.
What's the Trappist Rochefort, when known dry Abbey yeasts (Abbey/M47) are usually associated with Chimay?
They also have an extremely exotic-sounding "Porter and Kwass" yeast (SafKvas C-73? why Porter?) which I dared not order this time.
The only way to know is to try all those strains myself.

 

[Drewch]

I believe, the whole Lachancea thing is a heresy . . . . Philly Lachancea was wrangled on a Philadelphia cemetery. Which sounds like a grossly disgusting source for anything food-related. . . . But what I could do if I already have it for free?

Heresy or not, you can make some very tasty sour beers with Lachancea ... With a lot less headache than messing with bacteria.

To me, a tree in a cemetery doesn't seem any grosser than dust particles from the air in Brussels.

Make your favorite wheat beer recipe and use the Lachancea blend instead of your normal yeast. It probably won't come out like the nominal style ("Belgian Sour", "German Sour", etc.), but it'll make nice lightly tart ale.

 

[Protos]

Thanks for a tip!
I'll need a lot of them from now, my knowledge of sour beers is purely theoretical.

To me, a tree in a cemetery doesn't seem any grosser than dust particles from the air in Brussels.

Lol, that's all about personal tastes, which is worse: airborne fecal matter vs microbial flora of cadaverial decomposition I vote for the former to be less offensive, YMMV