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I share sanitizer between sour and clean beers and don't have issues, but I don't keep it around very long.

If you can, crash your fermentors for a day or so before racking into the barrel to carry over even less yeast.

What temp do you serve at? Could it be that once the keg warmed up the existing gas in the keg was warm/volatile enough to produce a good head?

I have used dried cherries in sours with great results. Russian River uses dried fruit as well. Try to find a source that doesn't have sunflower oil in them (keeps them from clumping). The oil won't affect the taste, but it will kill your head retention. I also recommend to pitch everything at...

Anyone ever get a heavy acetobacter smell/taste when building up CS dregs? Do people build up their starters on a stir plate, or without and an airlock?

Just give it more time. I have started a culture from a bottle of nightmare on Brett street, and it took 2 weeks to get a decent krausen.

I've had great luck making sours from small beers made from the second runnings from a normal beer. As clean beers they are mild and uninteresting, but as sours they work great. The first was a sour pale made from a quads grain bed(color came from dark sugars so the mash was quite pale). I...

I would use a yeast calculator, and properly rehydrate if using dry yeast. I've never had viability issues when using the stated yeast count

Why dry hop and then age for four months and not aged for four months, then dry hop? Wouldn't you get a fresher hop character that way?

I start drinking my beer as soon as I put it in the fridge, tasting it as it carbonates. For me, aside from not having to clean bottles, kegging is a great way to fine tune the carbonation as you go. If you are really impatient, you can always up the pressure to around 30 psi, and rock/shake...

I havnt sampled my melange, but the farmhouse sour is delicous! Juicy lactic tartness. Cannot wait to have it in a bottle

If you get too large of a head space, the staves at the top won't be in contact with the beer, and can dry out. If this happens a lot of O2 can get in, increasing the possibility of acetic acid developing. You may want to top off to avoid that.

Thanks for the reply all. The recipe is based of one from wild brews and one from American sours, so I'm not worried about the og. I have sour cascade dregs that I'll add to a double pitch of whichever culture I end up using. Thanks all

I have four 5gal carboys with 2 lambics, a second running stout with raspberries, and a sour farmhouse. I also have a 15 gallon barrel full of a Flemish red that is nearing completion, so I'm planning on 15 gallons of a dark sour to fill it back up. I try to do one every three months to keep...

I have read that one shouldn't make starters with mixed cultures as the ratio of the various yeasts/bacterias get unbalanced. I have also heard that the first beer made with the roselare blend won't be as tart as subsequent beers tossed on the yeastcake. I am planning on a sour with an og of...

Why not pitch the Brett at the same time as the Sacc to give it access to more sugars?

I am planning out a sour stout with an OG of 1.090. I plan to use a mixed culture(either yeast bay's mélange or roselare). I would normally make a big starter for a clean beer with this gravity. What about for mixed cultures? Anyone have any experience with the pros/cons of this?

I too am planning a sour stout. My question has to do with pitch rates. If I go the route of pitching a mixed culture (yeast bays melange, or the roselare blend) should I make a starter? I'm planning on a OG of 1.090 and an IBU of around 20-25. I have heard that if you make a starter of a...

Both of mine are in the fermentor still, but I really like the sample of the farmhouse sour I just had.

Give it time. I bottled a 13% stout from a barrel, and at that strength it took a couple months to see carbonation. Also, the barrel breaths, so depending on how long it was in there, it will have less residual carbonation than the same beer in a carboy for the same time