Recommendations on bottle dregs in secondary

[PassionBeer]

I brewed a relatively basic Saison about 2 weeks ago fermented with 3711. In about another week, I'm going to bottle either 3 or 4 gallons of it, leaving 1 or 2 gallons to play around with. I'm very interested in adding bottle dregs to a 1 gallon batch. Since I've never done this, does anyone have recommendations on the following:

• 
  Which bottles would work well with my beer? Here is a list I've found.

• How long should I leave the dregs in the secondary (1 month, 2 months, more?)

• When it's time to bottle, I already have 375 ml capped Belgian bottles I am using. Do I prime like normal with dextrose? How much to avoid "bottle bombs" or gushers?

Cheers!

 

[Coff]

There are a few different ways you can go about this, the easiest is just pitch the dregs right into your 1 gallon fermenter with the finished beer and wait. Decant the beer from the bottle and drink it leaving ~1oz of beer behind with the dregs at the bottom then toss all of that into the 1 gallon fermenter. This method works perfectly fine, especially with a 1 gallon batch, things may take a little while longer (depending on the dregs and the age of the bottle) but you will get solid results.

If you want to ensure you have viable dregs, decant as in the other option and pitch the dregs into ~250ml of 1.030 starter wort and give them some time to wake up and remember they can ferment. Then just decant the spent wort and pitch your yeast slurry, or the whole 250ml its not much. If you want to build up the culture you can continue to add wort incrementally.

Here is a post that you should give a read, Mike has a good list of unpasteurized beers with various bugs that can be propogated.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html

As for time, it depends on the culture, if youre just pitching Brett 2-3 months is probably fine. Once the gravity is stable you are ready to go. For these small 1 gallon batches you should just use the carbonation tablets and aim for moderate to high volumes of co2 depending on the beer style you are going for.

For your Saison start with Orval dregs, its a classic and just Brett so you'll be able to turn it around faster than pitching something with Lacto, Pedio like Lambic dregs.

Good luck!

 

[JBOGAN]

Just did this myself with a saison i bottled and left a gallon behind.Dumped the dregs of two Jolly Pumpkins and 10 days later a nice pellicle had formed.

 

[PassionBeer]

There are a few different ways you can go about this, the easiest is just pitch the dregs right into your 1 gallon fermenter with the finished beer and wait. Decant the beer from the bottle and drink it leaving ~1oz of beer behind with the dregs at the bottom then toss all of that into the 1 gallon fermenter. This method works perfectly fine, especially with a 1 gallon batch, things may take a little while longer (depending on the dregs and the age of the bottle) but you will get solid results.

If you want to ensure you have viable dregs, decant as in the other option and pitch the dregs into ~250ml of 1.030 starter wort and give them some time to wake up and remember they can ferment. Then just decant the spent wort and pitch your yeast slurry, or the whole 250ml its not much. If you want to build up the culture you can continue to add wort incrementally.

Here is a post that you should give a read, Mike has a good list of unpasteurized beers with various bugs that can be propogated.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html

As for time, it depends on the culture, if youre just pitching Brett 2-3 months is probably fine. Once the gravity is stable you are ready to go. For these small 1 gallon batches you should just use the carbonation tablets and aim for moderate to high volumes of co2 depending on the beer style you are going for.

For your Saison start with Orval dregs, its a classic and just Brett so you'll be able to turn it around faster than pitching something with Lacto, Pedio like Lambic dregs.

Good luck!

Thanks for all your insight. Would the Northern Brewer Fermenter's Favorite Fizz Drops do well for the 1 gallon batch? I just worry since they're solid tablet drops that you can't really control the carbonation level....

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Add Jolly Pumpkin dregs. Wait until it tastes right. Go 3/4 normal sugar...maybe a bit lower. Bottle. Wait. Drink. Beergasm.