Should I rack my sour beer to secondary?

[WesternBrew]

I'm brewing my first sour beer using wyeast 3763 roeselare blend (Northern Brewers Oud Bruin de Table). It just finished primary fermentation. I was wondering if I should rack this into secondary; which is something I don't usually do. Would I possibly be removing enough of the lambic cultures that it would take years to get any noticeable sourness?

Should I be worried about autolysis in a beer that's going to have a strong sour flavor anyway? Or is sitting at fermentation temps for a year going to make every last one of those yeasties turn on each other in a last ditch effort to survive and give a noticeable off flavor?

I'd love to hear from someone whose used roeselare before.

Thanks

 

[metic]

. Would I possibly be removing enough of the lambic cultures that it would take years to get any noticeable sourness?

That isn't a concern: there should be plenty of the LAB and brett left in suspsension. Some people like to leave their sour beers on the yeast cake because the brett can convert compounds from the decomposing yeast and perhaps give you a funkier beer. Most people who do this report that they don't have problems with autolysis.

I prefer to rack off to a secondary fermenter, mainly to minimize oxygen levels in secondary (I brew enough to fill a 3 gallon better bottle). If I want a more funky beer, I'll do this a bit early so that there is still some sacch in suspension, which will fall out in secondary; but usually I wait until most of the sacch has fallen out before transferring.

 

[sweetcell]

If I want a more funky beer, I'll do this a bit early so that there is still some sacch in suspension, which will fall out in secondary

this is what i did with my oud bruin. primary was mostly complete when i racked. i believe it was 6 or 7 days after pitching. several months later, there is about a quarter inch of trub at the bottom of the secondary, so some sacch was indeed transferred.

racking to secondary allows you to use a smaller carboy/BB, and thus cut down how much head space you have above the beer. keeping it in primary = too much O2.

 

[WesternBrew]

I think I'll leave it in primary. I like making beer with a funky flavor that you might not be able to get anywhere else. Also the only thing I had available for primary was a 5 gallon carboy, that I filled to the brim. So the only head space is what blew out during primary. Plus the only thing I have to rack it into is another 5 gallon carboy. So no advantage there.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks Sweetcell. I'm doing two brews one week apart, and want to use same primary fermenter, thus need to rack easily that I normally would. Glad to know it should turn out fine. It's been my experience that for most average gravity brews,and even some higher gravity brews, the sacch is usually finished with its primary duty between 3-5 days. I'm pretty new at mixed fermentations though.

TD


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