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At kegging I was impressed (relieved at least). Down to 1.009 (.001 higher than my house-saison blend). It had turned the hop aromatics into pineapple initially, but at two weeks was tasting more passion fruit. No plastic or heavily phenolic notes to my tastes. Maybe the 3.4 pH helped? Or just...

I've had some 688 kicking around for a couple months. Pitched it for bottle conditioning in a Westy Blonde clone, thus far not impressive (but still young). Today I pitched the stepped up starter into a soured wort that I then pasteurized with Mosaic/Citra/Simcoe... hopefully it ferments out...

High levels of chloride also hinder yeast flocculation, could be part of the reason these usually easy clearing strains end up making cloudy beers.

It would worry me too. You could always try it and if you taste DMS before pitching, boil for 20 minutes and allow to cool naturally again. My understanding is DMS volatizes pretty quickly once it is formed.

I'll warn that this is a recipe that is very process driven. I chatted with the head brewer of a well-regarded craft brewery that brewed a batch based on my technique but ended up having to dump the beer as a DMS bomb. I suspect the result of the longer time the wort spends in the DMS...

I'd start with less wort if you are growing the dregs (I tend to co-pitch directly from the bottle with the Sacch). There aren't many cells and you want activity quickly. You can step up after a week. I'd also switch to an airlock eventually, too much oxygen will encourage undesirable aerobic...

In that case feel free to send me any Orval or Cantillon Iris you have sitting around... It's not like dry hops are gone in a month or two, and even after that (especially in the presence of Brett) they can have a positive flavor contribution!

There are some fun hop-microbe interactions, but I still prefer to dry hop relatively close to serving (I usually add them and keg condition for 3-4 weeks before serving). I 'll actually be investigating this and doing an NHC presentation. I'm thinking of serving hoppy sours made with three...

Adding fruit and allowing further fermentation will make it more acidic (the fruit adds acids of its own, plus simple sugars the bacteria will turn into more lactic acid). If the gravity is stable, it may not get any more acidic now. In time the Brett will produce more interesting character. It...

I'd give it a taste and a gravity reading. Airlocks aren't a reliable gauge of fermentation.

Good idea to taste before adding something that could clash (or be a waste)! Pediococcus is likely going to be the main souring microbe at work, it is relatively hop-tolerant, so you may get good acidity.

Hard to go wrong with citrusy and sour. Nelson can be domineering though, I'd probably cut it with one of the others if you want to go that route. 2:1 Citra to Amarillo is a personal favorite combo.

Interesting experiment addressing the issue here: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Brettanomyces_secondary_fermentation_experiment Turns out the primary strain isn't all that important, while Brett does convert 4VG to 4EG, this is a relatively small amount of the total 4EG produced.

Brett will produce acetic acid anytime oxygen in available, including during propogation. However, if it is the only the small amount dissolved in the wort at pitching, this amount should be below threshold. I don't find that oxygen is correlated with the funkier aspects of Brett. Those...

Whirlfloc shouldn't have any effect on the yeast. It's a kettle fining designing to help remove break material (protein) from the kettle. Cold-side finings like gelatin and isinglass do help to drop yeast out though.

You could steep the crystal malt on its own and add that to half the wort. It'll add more malt flavor, color, and some unfermentables.

I usually add oak when I move my sours to secondary. I move most sours to secondary (other than lambic-type) after 3-5 weeks, once most of the primary yeast has dropped out.

Yep, Lance measured a ~.003 drop with WL L. brevis (and that took the pH to 3.14).

The question is, what sort of beers do you want to end up with? If you want one of them to be Berliner-esque, I'd leave out the crystal. How about brewing 9 gallons of ~1.060 pale wheat-heavy wort, and diluting 3 gallons by 50% to get the Berliner down to its traditional range. Pitch the rest...

My first Scottish Stout (recipe) was solid. Using kettle caramelization and only two malts left it a bit thin and bland though. I was much happier with the re-brewed version 8% cara/crystal malt.