First sour w/ 3278, yeast questions

[Andrew Hodgson]

Nah just moved it to a glass carboy once the primary Sach fermentation was done about 3 weeks.

 

[yoop89]

Coming up on a full year in a few days! I have not touched any of the three main beers, only monitored airlocks to keep them from drying out and the occasional peek at the pellicle.

Now to the planning stage to get this carbonated. Whats everyone do? Bottle prime? Keg prime? Force Carb in keg?

 

[henchman24]

I do a mix of all of them depending on the situation. I always pull off 2-4 bottles that I individually prime (and throw in some yeast). I plan on aging those for years. Then transfer the rest to the keg. If I have a nice pipeline built up for my taps (3-4+ months worth), I'll prime and let sit in the keg until I'm ready to drink it. If I don't have that, I just force carb as I would any other beer. My culture has pediococcus (as does 3728) and I've had that get ropy a couple times before when priming. If you let it sit for a couple months it will almost surely go away, and I've never had it last longer than 3 (though it can). Force carbing reduces that risk if you need a quick turnaround.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Coming up on a full year in a few days! I have not touched any of the three main beers, only monitored airlocks to keep them from drying out and the occasional peek at the pellicle.

Now to the planning stage to get this carbonated. Whats everyone do? Bottle prime? Keg prime? Force Carb in keg?

I bottle carb with yeast from an "acid shock starter". This helps carbonate quickly and prevent THP.

 

[couchsending]

IMHO anything you long term age really should be bottle conditioned. That way you can hold onto bottles and have it continue to age over years. You always see brewers that release beers that have been bottle conditioning for extended periods of time. Plus it’s much easier to carbonate to higher carb levels in thick glass than try to serve that high carb out of a keg.

If it’s actually rather sour you’re going to want to research making a “terminal acid shock” Starter as has been mentioned. Trust me it’s well worth it. Works so crazy well. I’ve had 3.2pH beers fully carb in 7-10 days. I use Red Star champagne yeast or EC-1118. It takes a few more steps but it’s well worth it for something you’ve been patiently holding onto for 12 months.

 

[yoop89]

I bottle carb with yeast from an "acid shock starter". This helps carbonate quickly and prevent THP.

Do you use the same yeast that was in the ferment or a wine yeast? I read through a few MTF pages this weekend and it seemed people use both methods. If using a wine yeast you will not be able to use the dregs in the future if you choose to build up from a stored bottle, correct?

Also do you guys just cap or have you invested in cork/cage? Is it worth it?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Do you use the same yeast that was in the ferment or a wine yeast? I read through a few MTF pages this weekend and it seemed people use both methods. If using a wine yeast you will not be able to use the dregs in the future if you choose to build up from a stored bottle, correct?

Also do you guys just cap or have you invested in cork/cage? Is it worth it?

Since 3278 is a blend, you can't really use just the primary Sacc in this case (unless you want to go through the trouble of isolating it).
Regardless, I've always used EC-1118 because it's highly aggressive and performs better with low pH compared to other strains.

You can still use the dregs in the future, just add it after primary fermentation completes. This is generally recommended anyway because many commercial breweries are using killer strains for bottle conditioning. Mixed fermentation dregs don't need to be "built up" because they generally shouldn't be used for primary fermentation.

I cap my bottles, even though I also have a floor corker. I don't see a reason to bother with corking.

 

[henchman24]

I'd say it depends on what on what you're trying to do with the dregs. Build up a whole new culture to pitch, or just add post primary fermentation? The wine yeast will certainly throw off the blend and if it is a killer yeast, it will probably kill the sacc that survived. If you're doing your mixed fermentation in stages, I'd say using wine yeast doesn't matter. If you're going to build up a new culture from it, be careful which yeast you use. I personally will use some wine yeast to get a re-pitch going again if I feel there is too long of a delay. I just use a non-killer strain and one that can create some expression for the brett to further convert. It can slightly change the flavor of the culture (for the better to me). I wouldn't build up from bottle dregs though, especially when you have a whole yeast cake at your disposal.

Having a yeast accustomed to acid does make a difference on bottle or keg conditioning. More consistent results with less of a chance of issues (though I fully admit that if beer just came off fruit, I'm not going through this step). You don't have to go crazy scientific for good results. Obviously more attention to detail and better methods can improve the process, but it can be done pretty easily with minimal work.

I cap the bottles I use. I'd only stray away if I was trying to be fancy and give it away as a gift. Even then I doubt I would put in the effort.

 

[brownni5]

I've used the plastic corks with some success. A bit more cost than caps, but nice for those 29mm bottles. Most of the times, those work great, but I have popped a few flat bottles. Not sure if it's the bottle or re-used plastic corks, but I think I'm done with those.