Getting started - managing fermenters

[monkeymath]

Hey folks,

After tip-toeing around it for a year now, it's finally time I get started brewing sours, the long-aged kind. With the long waiting time and the serious potential for things to go wrong, I'm feeling a bit intimidated and want to make sure to give it the best shot I can.

However, I do not intend to brew sours and only sours from now on - while that does sound tempting, I would have to find a bigger apartment first to fit all the fermenters. As a consequence, I'm shuffling around different ideas which fermenters to use for sours and how. I have two 30l Speidel fermenters. To keep at least one of them "clean", I see essentially two options:

1. Use one fermenter for the clean fermentation with sacch only, then transfer to second fermenter and get the bug party started
2. Pitch yeast and all other microbes within a 2km radius into the wort, ferment and age in the same fermenter.

Either way, I would later top off with young beer (or possibly some wort) to reduce the headspace and oxygen exposure.

Co-pitching (as in (2)) is often lauded for bringing out more acidity - as the bugs have more to chew on - and complexity of flavours. However, I am not 100% comfortable leaving the beer on all the trub and hop resin (although that is, afaik, the way lambic is made).

Cheers from Munich and thanks for your help,
Daniel

 

[Funky Frank]

1 may actually give you better flavor because acidity mutes some sac yeast expression. Either way is fine and don’t worry about the trub staying in the bottom as Brett will protect against the off flavors associated with yeast death. For these long sours, get some diversity going by using dregs a few weeks into fermentation.

You may also consider taking a “trial” run with both copitching and staggered pitching with:
Fast Souring - Modern Methods
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/Fast-Souring---Modern-Methods.670176/
The fast souring method may also fit with your current space concerns and it should not “contaminate” your fermenter.

I have both long sours and fast sours going. Both make good beer.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Hey folks,

After tip-toeing around it for a year now, it's finally time I get started brewing sours, the long-aged kind. With the long waiting time and the serious potential for things to go wrong, I'm feeling a bit intimidated and want to make sure to give it the best shot I can.

However, I do not intend to brew sours and only sours from now on - while that does sound tempting, I would have to find a bigger apartment first to fit all the fermenters. As a consequence, I'm shuffling around different ideas which fermenters to use for sours and how. I have two 30l Speidel fermenters. To keep at least one of them "clean", I see essentially two options:

1. Use one fermenter for the clean fermentation with sacch only, then transfer to second fermenter and get the bug party started
2. Pitch yeast and all other microbes within a 2km radius into the wort, ferment and age in the same fermenter.

Either way, I would later top off with young beer (or possibly some wort) to reduce the headspace and oxygen exposure.

Co-pitching (as in (2)) is often lauded for bringing out more acidity - as the bugs have more to chew on - and complexity of flavours. However, I am not 100% comfortable leaving the beer on all the trub and hop resin (although that is, afaik, the way lambic is made).

Cheers from Munich and thanks for your help,
Daniel

Do you have questions?

 

[monkeymath]

Do you have questions?

Haha, yeah, I realize now I did not explicitly ask "what do you think are the pros and cons of each method? Which ones, if any, do you practice yourself, what would you recommend?"

FunkyFrank seems to have guessed this nontheless.