Question for the sour brewers

[Plan9]

Are you buying new smack packs of bugs for every batch, or is there a way to save or repitch?

I have a few ideas for slightly soured farmhouse ales, but I'd rather not buy new packs every few weeks.

 

[niquejim]

Pitch the dregs from a couple commercials(I use Orval)and wait and wait and wait. I love sours, but they take soooooo long

 

[Beerrific]

Most people advocate buying a new pack if it is a blend. Since these types of beers usually take a long time to sour, you get very different rates of growth and death depending on the cell type. So, the second beer will have a much different sour profile.

If it is a single bug pack, I guess you could repitch.

 

[CGengo]

You could always brew up and sour a single 5 gallon batch of something fairly light and neutral and then use it to mix in with your standard ales - basically the same as the way that Guinness mixes in soured beer to the tune of 3% for their stouts. That way you can experiment to find just the right amount of sourness to add.

Chris

 

[Plan9]

Since the bugs keep working for a long time I wonder how this would work...

Make 2 1-Gallon jugs of a basic starter wort.
Add Brett to one, and Lacto to the other.
When a batch is brewed pitch a cup out of each jug.
Add a cup of clean wort into each jug to give them more to munch on.

I would think you could do this for several months.

I'm probably over looking something basic here.

 

[claphamsa]

where do you buy said bugs?

 

[brewt00l]

where do you buy said bugs?

LHBS

White Labs
Wyeast Laboratories. Brettanomyces and Lactic Acid Bacteria Cultures

 

[CGengo]

Since the bugs keep working for a long time I wonder how this would work...

Make 2 1-Gallon jugs of a basic starter wort.
Add Brett to one, and Lacto to the other.
When a batch is brewed pitch a cup out of each jug.
Add a cup of clean wort into each jug to give them more to munch on.

I would think you could do this for several months.

I'm probably over looking something basic here.

That's a perfectly acceptable approach, known as solera fashion, although I think think that making wort one cup at a time to replenish would be difficult and tedious - I think I' stick with at least a 5 gallon keg. And I think I'd test the idea by simply buying a commercial sour brown or lambic for mixing instead of waiting 6+ months to create the first one.

Here's a thread on doing a solera fashion beer...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/solera-48297/

Chris