rancidcrabtree
Well-Known Member
This is (was?) a sour mashed oatmeal stout which I added 5 small cans of Oregon cherries to after primary. I planned on bottling this weekend, but unfortunately sometime during the last two weeks while I was gone on military training my Big Mouth Bubbler airlock (stupid design!) went dry and I got an acetobacter infection, well it smells like vinegar anyways. I like sours, but I don't like to drink straight vinegar. If this tastes ok should I bother bottling it? Or will it just continue to get more gross?? It was a solid film on top until I broke it up when I pulled the cherries out.
Update: I manned up and tried it... It tastes like an oatmeal stout with a hint of cherry, very little if any sourness so far. I like it. Would racking onto a secondary with zero headspace until I have time to bottle this weekend be a viable option? If I add campden tablets will I still be able to carb in the bottle? Should I rack on top of some super concentrated DME I have boiling and add a pack of US-05??
Second update: I now think I overreacted to a dry airlock, a couple of dead fruit flies, and some fermenting cherries... Because I have the patience of a three year old, I decided to rack on top 1LB of dark LME boiled in a half gallon of water, then I added a pack of US-05. As I racked the "infection" looked more and more like yeast. The vinegar smell mellowed into how I remembered the cherries to smell when I first added them. Looks like I may have just taken a perfectly good cherry stout and made it into an over-malty not-cherry-stout. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.
Update: I manned up and tried it... It tastes like an oatmeal stout with a hint of cherry, very little if any sourness so far. I like it. Would racking onto a secondary with zero headspace until I have time to bottle this weekend be a viable option? If I add campden tablets will I still be able to carb in the bottle? Should I rack on top of some super concentrated DME I have boiling and add a pack of US-05??
Second update: I now think I overreacted to a dry airlock, a couple of dead fruit flies, and some fermenting cherries... Because I have the patience of a three year old, I decided to rack on top 1LB of dark LME boiled in a half gallon of water, then I added a pack of US-05. As I racked the "infection" looked more and more like yeast. The vinegar smell mellowed into how I remembered the cherries to smell when I first added them. Looks like I may have just taken a perfectly good cherry stout and made it into an over-malty not-cherry-stout. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.
