Sour IPA - secondary or not?

[m00ps]

Im making a sour IPA later tonight. My plan is to use a somewhat large hopstand/whirlpool followed by a much larger dry hop a few days before bottling to get my hop character. No boil additions.

Im mostly worried about preserving the hop character from oxidation during the long fermentation. I've got a sour blend that im very familiar with and has yet to let me down, so im not considering kettle/mash souring to speed things up.

My question is, for my previous sours, I've always racked to a smaller 5gal secondary carboy and then added my sour blend. For this IPA, I'm planning on co-pitching brett and my Conan yeast, and then souring it a week or so later. Do you think I should leave it in my 6.5gal carboy the entire time, or rack it off my brett/sacch cake for months of aging? Like I said, Im mostly concerned with oxidation, not autolysis

 

[microbusbrewery]

If it were me, I'd rack it. I'd be more concerned about getting it off the dry hops as they can add off flavors over time. I wouldn't worry much about oxidation, just use some common sense (e.g. purge with co2). In fact, there has been some research recently that shows that brett (at least some strains) can prevent oxidation, so even less to worry about.

Out of curiosity, have you used this sour culture on something with lots of hops before? And if so, how low did it drop the pH...and mind sharing what culture you're using? My understanding and experience has shown that most lacto strains have a hard time producing lactic acid when there are lots of hop oils, even when the IBUs are kept to a minimum. Apparently it coats their cell walls and prevents them from metabolizing sugars. Definitely interested if you've figured out a way around this.

 

[m00ps]

Well for the dry hops, I'm planning on adding them months down the road right before packaging

My sour blend is just something I cultured up from a bunch of sour beers from jolly pumpkin, anchorage , crooked stave, prairie, and a few more. Its gone through 6 or 7 rounds so far and it seems pretty robust. I checked the pH of my 2 week old starter last time and it was at like 3.4 if I remember right. I think the variety of microbes is what makes it perform reliably and quickly. The happiest thing I've made with it so far had a decent amount of hops. Something like 1oz at 60min, 1oz at 10, and 2 more at foaneout. The hops were an experimental variety around 11%. This one did take around 2 months to get really sour and another 2 until it hit it's stride but it still worked ok

 

[m00ps]

So my basics question is right now I've got it with a bit over a gallon headspace. Should I leave it there for months or transfer it so it has like less than a tenth of a gallon? Or would the oxidation from the transfer be worse than from the primary headspace?

 

[theheroguy]

with an active mixed culture oxidation isn't really a big concern because the bacteria and yeast tend to scavenge o2 fairly aggresively. This is assuming you don't introduce excessive amounts of air.

 

[Calder]

Headspace is not a concern. If there is a lot of O2 in there, the bugs will form a pellicle which will provide protection and limit the amount of O2 getting into the beer.

 

[m00ps]

hmm OK. Sounds like I'll leave it in the 6.5gal carboy and dry hop it in there. I guess I dont really need to make the decision for a while anyway though. Itll probably come down to whether or not I need to use that 6.5gal one for another saison...

 

[microbusbrewery]

Sorry, I misread your original post. I thought you meant you were dry hopping before adding the souring cultures. Definitely interested in hearing how this turns out.