Driving fermentation

[killian]

I have been thinking about ways to drive fermentation. I have been making strong ales dosing with candy syrup during fermentation, I have also made some meads dosing fermentation with fermaid k, Dap, and a yeast nutrient. This has me wondering if these techniques could be applied to sour beer.

I have been planning to make a Dark strong/Quad fermenting with a mix of Brett, lacto & pedio. I'm thinking about adding some nutrient a few days into fermentation and adding some candy syrup after that.


Any thoughts?

 

[dantheman13]

I've heard of people adding sugar after primary fermentation to help get more Brett character in their beers, but I've also heard that this doesn't really help much.

Other than that, I am not sure I see the benefit of this. Brettanomyces can handle fairly high ABV (I've heard Chad Yakobson say around 14%, but that he wouldn't be surprised if it could handle 18%).

 

[sweetcell]

I have been planning to make a Dark strong/Quad fermenting with a mix of Brett, lacto & pedio.

i have some thoughts on this, but first: are you going to use only those 3 critters, or some sacch as well?

 

[killian]

Well I'm still formulating the plan, I keep rolling this idea around and changing things. Here is the most current plan.

Brewing 10 gallons, 5 will be pitched with just a sac strain fermented as normal. The other 5 gallons will be runoff when the wort is around 100 degrees, then the lacto will be pitched. 24 or 48 hours later I will bring it to a boil, chill it then pitch the Brett and let that go for a couple of days measure the gravity and add some nutrient.

Then I'm thinking I'll check the gravity 2 or 3 days later. If the gravity reading at that point shows signs of an increase in the rate of fermentation I might try another nutrient addition. When I'm about 1/2 way to reaching final gravity I'll add some candy sugar.

After fermentation is complete I will blend some of the standard ale with some of the the mix culture.

 

[Coff]

Sounds like an interesting and unique process, I say you try it and report back your findings. You didn't mention the OG, before and after the sugar additions. Some of the bugs arent going to like the higher alc environment though.

 

[sweetcell]

The other 5 gallons will be runoff when the wort is around 100 degrees, then the lacto will be pitched.

so you'll take your first runnings, then wait while your mashtun cools to 100*F? that could take a while, no?

once you pitch your lacto, will you be applying heat to keep it in the 100*F range?

suggestion, in case you weren't already considering it: protect the lacto-inoculated wort from oxygen. most folks flush the vessel's headspace with CO2 then seal it.

pitch the Brett and let that go for a couple of days measure the gravity and add some nutrient.

Then I'm thinking I'll check the gravity 2 or 3 days later. If the gravity reading at that point shows signs of an increase in the rate of fermentation I might try another nutrient addition.

unless you have a control where nutrient wasn't added, how will you know if fermentation has increased?

brett is slower than sacch, but like sacch it takes a while to get going (lag phase) and then takes off like a rocket, peaks, slows then stops. so regardless of whether you added nutrients or not, it will be calm for a while (a few hours or days) and will then rapidly increase.

fermentation always follows a curve - with or without nutrients added. what you're looking to prove is that nutrients make that curve steeper (faster) or make it last longer. unless you have a non-nutrient batch to compare it to you can't isolate the impact of the nutrients, vs. what the brew would have done anyways without additions. or maybe i'm misunderstanding something here?

 

[Calder]

For any decent beer wort, there are plenty of nutrients for the yeast. I don't think adding nutrient is doing anything. ............ I wonder if there are any negative effects of adding too much nutrient?