Starting to sour, still HEAVY diacetyl

[italarican]

I'm making a sour blonde I plan to age on chardonnay soaked oak and peaches. I brewed in February and pitched Roeselare. One month later I pitched WL Brett B and some dregs from Russian River Beatification.

3.5 months in, it's already starting to sour, which is way quicker than I've experienced with Roeselare before. It's still a major buttered popcorn bomb, however, which I assume is the pedio.

Fermentation has been cellar temperature (about 63F).

My understanding is that I should just let this ride and that the Brett will gradually eat up the diacetyl. I wanted to age this beer anyway, so no worries about that. I guess my concern is whether I can do anything to make sure the lactic acidity doesn't get out of hand. It's still pretty mild right now; it's just with it being acidic earlier than I expected, I'm worried it'll get too harsh before the diacetyl taste is gone.

 

[foltster]

The Brett should reduce the diacetyl in time. If you still have strong diacetyl in December, consider pitching some fresh Brett.

 

[italarican]

The Brett should reduce the diacetyl in time. If you still have strong diacetyl in December, consider pitching some fresh Brett.

Is there anything in the meantime to make sure the lacto doesn't get out of control, or are bugs just gonna do what bugs wanna do?

 

[terrenum]

Have you transfer to secondary or still primary? If you transferred too quickly, may be the yeasts didn't have time to clean up their mess!
Should improve overtime. Be patient!

 

[italarican]

Have you transfer to secondary or still primary? If you transferred too quickly, may be the yeasts didn't have time to clean up their mess!
Should improve overtime. Be patient!

It's still in primary. I don't plan to transfer to secondary with chardonnay oak cubes and peaches until it's close to where I want it. I've assumed that'll be around 10-12 months. It's staying in a low-60sF cellar this whole time.

 

[Dcpcooks]

I would let it ride. Make sure you keep o2 out at this point. Any head space will invite acetic acid production.

I'd let it go until at least September or October and then rack it to secondary with peaches and oak.

 

[italarican]

Well, I went ahead and checked today since I was working with another sour. The diacetyl is gone, but as I feared the lactic acid got more aggressive and is slightly more acidic than I'd wanted. It's not acetic and smells awesome, but the mild funk is significantly overpowered by acidity.

I'm going to get this off the bugs now before it gets more acidic. I'm thinking I should scrap the peaches now since that would presumably add more acidity, but the chardonnay-soaked oak may balance that part out a bit. If it doesn't, I think I'll just sit on this and make something like a brett saison to blend this with later.

This beer has only been sitting 6 months. Quite surprised the Roeselare was this aggressive.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

Blending bro

 

[twistedjosh]

^^ Blend it out

 

[burninator]

Racking it isn't going to arrest souring bacteria, which will still be present in solution. Sounds like a great candidate for blending.

 

[italarican]

Well, it didn't taste nearly as acidic today, and there was more balance with the funkiness. Maybe a hair more acidic than I wanted, but not much.

Based on that, I decided to rack onto a hefty amount of peaches (5 lbs yellow, 2.5 lbs white) and the oak. All that extra stuff in the secondary left me an extra half gallon of beer that wouldn't fit, so I sanitized a growler and will save that for future blending.