More first sour questions

[Bruinpilot]

So, taking everyone's advice I racked my first sour, basically an extract based Belgian dubbel with roselare blend yeast, into a glass carboy for the secondary. It had been in the primary for a week, and looked liked primary was over. I racked it primarily to get it away from the oxygen permeability of the bucket and to get it off the yeast cake.

Anyways, it is now in a closet instead of my fermenter (to make room for more brews) and it started fermenting again, it's probably 7-8 degrees warmer in that closet than the 63 in the fermenter. Here's what happened. It started what appeared to be primary fermentation again. Not too vigorous, so not a huge mess. I just now have a new yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy. Is this a problem? Should I rack it again? Perhaps this is normal with the blend of yeast and bacteria in roselare? I don't know. Thanks for any input!

 

[microbusbrewery]

IME that's normal with Roeselare. I often use it for primary in my sours. I get a fairly vigorous primary, then it settles down, then a couple weeks later it will kick off again (not as vigorous as the primary) before slowing down for the long haul. I've never had any issues leaving it on the resulting yeast cake.

 

[505-Brewer]

Yes. Fine. Leave it. Set a reminder on your phone or computer to check the airlock every couple weeks. Check for flavor in 6 months or so. Roselare can be poor at souring first generation so you can add dregs from sour beers if you can find them. Anytime you sample, purge the headspace w CO2 real well.

 

[Bruinpilot]

Thanks Microbusbrewery and 505-brewer! I may have some squatters 529 dregs available soon. In order to make the Roselare more powerful, should I harvest the yeast from the bottom of the primary or should I wait until I bottle in probably more than a year and take the dregs from the secondary?

 

[505-Brewer]

Not sure. Ive only used it once and it didn't sour much. I would guess later on when the sour cultures have built up. Would be better. Too much later and it would mostly be brett.

 

[microbusbrewery]

I'm not sure exactly why, but I haven't had any problems getting Roeselare to sour, even with the first generation. I suspect it's due to the fact that I often use aged hops in my sours, so the IBUs are just not there to inhibit the bacteria. IME I've been able to drop the pH below 3.5 even with the first generation, which is plenty sour for most people. I'd harvest from primary because that should have the highest concentration of souring bacteria.

 

[505-Brewer]

I'm not sure exactly why, but I haven't had any problems getting Roeselare to sour, even with the first generation. I suspect it's due to the fact that I often use aged hops in my sours, so the IBUs are just not there to inhibit the bacteria. IME I've been able to drop the pH below 3.5 even with the first generation, which is plenty sour for most people. I'd harvest from primary because that should have the highest concentration of souring bacteria.

I used it in the consecration clone and I think the IBUs were just too high. Next time I'll do no more than 5 ibus and see. Ive had good results w Lambic blend so Roselare should work too. Want to remake the consecration as my 10 gals from 2 years ago is just about ready to keg now.