NB's Dawson's Kriek Kit

[Rob2010SS]

Hey Guys. This Sunday will be 7 weeks since I brewed this kit. I transferred it to secondary last Sunday, which was week 6. My wife and I love sours so we grabbed this kit to make and I read through a bunch of the reviews on NB's website. It got a lot of good reviews but one of the things I'm worried about is will it be sour ENOUGH?

One of the reviews I read, the guy switched out the sweet cherry puree that came with the kit and used montmorency cherries instead. I kind of did the same thing, but I bought the cans of the tart cherry puree and used those instead. The yeast with this kit was Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend and I'm reading that the things that turn the beer sour are the lactobacillus and pediococcus.

My question is this: will the Wyeast 3278 turn this sour or is there another strain I should be using? Considering the beer has already been going for 7 weeks with the 3278, do people ever pitch additional lacto or pedio to get it even more sour? Or at this point, should I just let it go with the 3278 because it will do just fine?

Thanks.

 

[specharka]

Short answer: no.

It takes 12-18 months or more for a sour beer to reach full acidity, and that's with a substantial inoculation of sour culture and minimal hop bittering. You won't see the expected complexity or tartness from a blended culture like WY3278; the addition of bottle dregs may help get you there, however. For future reference, fruits are usually added after the desired level of acidity is achieved to retain the fruit character into the beer.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Ok. So is dregs my best option? Ive seen you can buy packets of wyeast lacto or pedio. Would buying one of those and adding at this point be an option?

 

[specharka]

You wouldn't go wrong with either option in this case...generally speaking a bigger bacterial culture is better. What I and many other sour homebrewers do is maintain a sour beer house culture, adding bottle dregs from time to time, and periodically drawing a portion of that culture off for inoculating beer and replacing it with fresh wort. That way you can maintain a rotating lineup of sour beers and keep a pipeline going so you don't have to wait so long for the next batch to arrive. It's a little more expensive to maintain but well worth the effort.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Thanks for the info specharka. I may try that then. Either buy a sour that i know has the acidity Im looking for and pitch the dregs or buy a wyeast lacto strain and add that.

 

[crane]

IME commercial lactobacillus sources are not nearly as aggressive or hop tolerant than dregs from a bottle of jolly pumpkin. Given that you have hops in the recipe, I wouldn't expect a commercial lacto strain to sour it very much

 

[Rob2010SS]

IME commercial lactobacillus sources are not nearly as aggressive or hop tolerant than dregs from a bottle of jolly pumpkin. Given that you have hops in the recipe, I wouldn't expect a commercial lacto strain to sour it very much

That's ok. This gives me a reason to go and buy some nice sours! Ha. I was really looking forward to this one being sour and so far, if I don't change anything, it doesn't sound like it will be so I want to take the appropriate actions now to get what I'm looking for out of it.

What is the appropriate way to use dregs out of a bottle? Leave a little beer in the bottom of the bottle, swirl it around and dump? Or pour out all of the beer and use water in the bottle to swirl it around and loosen it up and then dump?

Thanks.
:rockin:

 

[crane]

That's ok. This gives me a reason to go and buy some nice sours! Ha. I was really looking forward to this one being sour and so far, if I don't change anything, it doesn't sound like it will be so I want to take the appropriate actions now to get what I'm looking for out of it.

What is the appropriate way to use dregs out of a bottle? Leave a little beer in the bottom of the bottle, swirl it around and dump? Or pour out all of the beer and use water in the bottle to swirl it around and loosen it up and then dump?

Thanks.
:rockin:

Leave a little beer in the bottom after pouring out the rest, swirl it around a bit, then dump it into the fermentor

 

[Rob2010SS]

Thanks

 

[Rob2010SS]

Stupid question but by doing this, will I get any funny effects in the carboy like a pelicle or anything? I just want to be prepared for what I may see so I don't freak out later.

Thanks.

 

[toddo97]

Here's a list of good sours with usable dregs: https://www.themadfermentationist.com/p/dreg-list.html