Open Fermentation - 2 Years Old

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Jipper

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Hey All,

So it's NHC time, and this year I'll be entering a straight lambic that has an interesting past. About two years ago, we were helping to teach a few employees how to brew on one of our BrewSculptures (I work for MoreBeer!). We brewed our Galaxy Extra Pale Ale kit, which was a 15 gallon batch in one of our 20 gallon sculptures. There were three of us, but since my fermentation space was already maxed out, I offered one of the other two to take my 5 gallons. They both had the same problem, so I took it home, put it in my closet, and realized I didn't have an extra stopper / airlock to put in the carboy...amateur. Or was it? :drunk:

I left the carboy in the closet, didn't pitch anything, nor did I bother covering it up the next day. Well after two years, the pellicle is still as strong as ever, and the smell was amazing, so I decided what the heck, let's try this!

I've brewed a few pretty good sours in my day, but surprisingly, this is probably my best one yet. Has anyone else out there tried something like this? Was it on purpose, or did you "mess up" like me? It's in the keezer right now, and I'm going to be carbonating to 2-3psi and bottling on Wednesday. Wish me luck (unless you're also competing in that category!)

Cheers!
 
Jipper said:
Hey All,

So it's NHC time, and this year I'll be entering a straight lambic that has an interesting past. About two years ago, we were helping to teach a few employees how to brew on one of our BrewSculptures (I work for MoreBeer!). We brewed our Galaxy Extra Pale Ale kit, which was a 15 gallon batch in one of our 20 gallon sculptures. There were three of us, but since my fermentation space was already maxed out, I offered one of the other two to take my 5 gallons. They both had the same problem, so I took it home, put it in my closet, and realized I didn't have an extra stopper / airlock to put in the carboy...amateur. Or was it? :drunk:

I left the carboy in the closet, didn't pitch anything, nor did I bother covering it up the next day. Well after two years, the pellicle is still as strong as ever, and the smell was amazing, so I decided what the heck, let's try this!

I've brewed a few pretty good sours in my day, but surprisingly, this is probably my best one yet. Has anyone else out there tried something like this? Was it on purpose, or did you "mess up" like me? It's in the keezer right now, and I'm going to be carbonating to 2-3psi and bottling on Wednesday. Wish me luck (unless you're also competing in that category!)

Cheers!

That sounds amazing! What kind of character does it have? You down for a bottle trade?? I'd love to get ahold of the dregs + an awesome sour beer. PM me if you'd be interested.

I'm working toward a gueze and one will be spontaneously fermented, like yours.

My only worry for your beer is that it doesn't have a lambic grain bill, and may be too hoppy. I'd suggest, going forward, looking at entering it in Belgian Speciality, 16E I think.
 
It's pretty tart, kinda funky, and has a great aroma (IMHO). I'm open to trading a bottle, but unfortunately don't think there will be any dregs in there if that's what you're after (kegged it and will be counter pressure bottle filling). The grain bill is definitely something that might hurt it in competition, and entering as a Belgian Specialty is a good idea come to think of it. Thanks for the head's up! When I get it bottled I'll let you know!

Cheers.
 
Are you saying you never closed it with a stopper? In that case I'm amazed it didn't turn into malt vinegar!
 
Correct - I was just as amazed! I was actually going to just dump it and gave it the smell test, expecting it to smell aweful. When it smelled like a tart sour ale though is when I decided to actually pull samples. I'm going to brew a lambic recipe soon, and will be pitching into 5 gallons, and not putting an airlock in the other 5. Will keep you all posted!

Cheers.
 
It might get nailed in Belgian Specialty. A friend had a sour that was not a typical lambic grain bill so he put it in Belgian Specialty. It was an outstanding beer but the comments from the judges were "Infected", "Never brew this again", "Not a Belgian Specialty Beer".
 
It might get nailed in Belgian Specialty. A friend had a sour that was not a typical lambic grain bill so he put it in Belgian Specialty. It was an outstanding beer but the comments from the judges were "Infected", "Never brew this again", "Not a Belgian Specialty Beer".

How did he describe the beer? I advanced a Belgian single with Brett last year that made the mini-BOS table in the final round.
 
How did he describe the beer? I advanced a Belgian single with Brett last year that made the mini-BOS table in the final round.

Not sure how he described it but brett has little to nothing to do with sour. I would think that brett in a Belgian specialty would be completely acceptable and normal. This was heavily soured, PH in the low 3's no Brett used.
 
Not sure how he described it but brett has little to nothing to do with sour. I would think that brett in a Belgian specialty would be completely acceptable and normal. This was heavily soured, PH in the low 3's no Brett used.

With the specialty beers it’s all in how you describe the beer. You want the judges to taste what they expect. If the beer is sour, you have to say so. It is very unusual for a Belgian sour to not have any Brett, that is usually more of a German profile.
 
Hey Matt,
I'd love to try one. I can trade you a bottle of my prickly pear sour blonde ale that just won third place at the World Cup of Beers. I also have a sour brown ale aged on cherries, although they are in those horrible fliptop bottles that don't seal so mostly flat, although pretty tasty.
 
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