Tart of Darkness

[Arbalest]

I mashed at 158 for an hour and its souring nicely.

 

[bmiller8]

Bottling this tomorrow...first sour. It's been a long wait for this one

 

[oldstyle69]

ive still got about .25 of a keg left of my batch. its effing great. a bit more sour than the OG one. but really good. just sucks that it takes so damn long. i pulled the plug on the waiting game at 10 months.

 

[dyqik]

I brewed my ToD clone 5/17/14 from the MoreBeer kit, and I'm thinking about bottling it soon, so I have some homebrew around for Christmas (I've been unable to brew since May due to buying a house and a broken collarbone - at the same time). This brew has moved house twice with us, and I haven't tasted it since I added the oak cubes in Feb (I think).

For bottling, I guess adding more yeast (champagne? or something else) is in order if I want to guarantee it carbs within a month or two? What level of carbonation are people targeting?

Hmm, and I guess I could manage an extract brew with the current condition of my collarbone and brewery to reuse the yeast/bug cake - should I do that in the same glass carboy, or should I decant the yeast/bug cake off (that would at least let me can pull the oak cubes out, I guess). Should I go for a complementary sour, or a rerun of something ToDish? I guess I'll finish the two cases of ToD before the new batch is ready.

 

[bmiller8]

I bottled on Saturday. Did 4 oz of corn sugar and 2 g of rehydrated wine yeast

 

[sweetcell]

I bottled on Saturday. Did 4 oz of corn sugar and 2 oz of rehydrated wine yeast

i'm hoping you meant 2 grams of yeast...

 

[bmiller8]

That'd be correct! Fixed, thanks!

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

Hmm, and I guess I could manage an extract brew with the current condition of my collarbone and brewery to reuse the yeast/bug cake - should I do that in the same glass carboy, or should I decant the yeast/bug cake off (that would at least let me can pull the oak cubes out, I guess). Should I go for a complementary sour, or a rerun of something ToDish? I guess I'll finish the two cases of ToD before the new batch is ready.

Twice I've decided to dump a yeast cake when my sour was complete, only to change my mind at the last minute. Both times, I've rushed out and grabbed enough extract to cobble together a partial mash brew with what I had left around the house. In both cases, I made something a little different--I reused my last ToD yeast cake for a Lost Abbey Cable Car-inspired sour.

I have added fresh wort to an old yeast cake as is--the remnants of fruit and oak still in place. I have also strained it out and reused it. Both versions produced fine results.

 

[Yourrealdad]

Bottled this on 10/24. Had it in a plastic carboy for 6 months. Transferred to a glass carboy with less head space and put it on oak cubes that had been soaked in four roses for a few months for another 6 months. Also threw in dregs of a TOD.

Put about half a packet of champagne yeast in the bucket and about 5.5oz of corn sugar.

Forced carbed the leftovers from the bottling and it tasted great. Great level of sour. Notes of cherry, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Pretty excited for it. My picky brother said he would pay money for it and he is stingy.

 

[dyqik]

Twice I've decided to dump a yeast cake when my sour was complete, only to change my mind at the last minute. Both times, I've rushed out and grabbed enough extract to cobble together a partial mash brew with what I had left around the house. In both cases, I made something a little different--I reused my last ToD yeast cake for a Lost Abbey Cable Car-inspired sour.

I have added fresh wort to an old yeast cake as is--the remnants of fruit and oak still in place. I have also strained it out and reused it. Both versions produced fine results.

I've grabbed enough pilsner extract to make a golden strong wort (as a first guess at a "recipe", cribbed from the copy of BCS in the LHBS when I was buying new beer lines and champagne yeast for bottling the ToD) and some Wyeast Abbey Ale yeast to throw on the cake. I figure that if I just use extract, with no sugar additions, the Abbey Ale will leave something for the bugs to chew on, and still have some body left afterwards. I expect it to pick up a bit of color from the ToD left in the bug cake. It's going to be the simplest possible brew - 9lb of pilsner extract, 5 gallons of dechlorinated tap water, and maybe 5 IBUs of whatever hop pellets I've got in the freezer.

I might dry hop some of it at the end of souring. Just to see what it does.

 

[dyqik]

I finally got around to brewing the golden wort (barely counts as a recipe - 9lb of extra light extract and half an ounce of old Williamette for a 5.5 gal batch) and bottling the ToD on Veterans day (4oz corn sugar and half a packet of champagne yeast added).

The golden wort has bubbled along (added a 4 month old pouch of WYeast Abbey Ale to the Roselaere cake, but failed to pop the nutrient bag properly, so it wasn't woken up at all) all week, and is now slowing. It's sitting in the basement at 60F, so cool for the yeast, but that's probably good for leaving food for the bugs.

I put the first bottle in the fridge on Thursday so I could test it. It hasn't fully carbed, but it has carbed just enough to drink fairly well. Still a little sweet from the lack of CO2 and underattenuated priming sugar, but very promising.

 

[rossi46]

I brewed a ToD on 11-1-15. I still sitting in primary in a speidel. How long can it sit in a speidel on the cake ? I need to go buy another glass carboy to rack.

 

[idylldon]

I brewed a ToD on 11-1-15. I still sitting in primary in a speidel. How long can it sit in a speidel on the cake ? I need to go buy another glass carboy to rack.

I brewed 30 gallons of one in August of 2014 and pitched Roselare, added 30lbs. of cherries in February of 2015, and just bottled it a couple of weeks ago. It sat in a 30-gallon Speidel the entire time. Not one iota of vinegar taste due to acetobacter, but I was diligent about just leaving it alone and replacing the airlock vodka to ensure no extra O2 pickup.

I used this yeast when I bottled it:

http://www.danstaryeast.com/company/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast

It carbed in under two weeks and tastes exceptional.

I will start another soon.

Cheers,
--
Don

 

[rossi46]

Cool, thanks. I used gigayeast gb150 sour cherry funk.

 

[Beersnob16]

Tod brewed today.

View attachment 1454270468760.jpg

View attachment 1454270479749.jpg

 

[rossi46]

Finally tried my Tart of Darkness with gy150. Holy cow, it's tart. It was brewed on 11-1-15, I'm going to oak it and package soon.

 

[badlee]

I just sampled a batch that has been aging for two years and three months yesterday. Bugs were ECY BC 2013(?)

Early on it was WAY harsh. But now is sooooo smooth with balance of Brett funk and acidity.

 

[GJOCONNELL]

so the air lock movement comes and goes over the course of a year?

 

[Sleepyemt]

so the air lock movement comes and goes over the course of a year?

Yes, Brett can continue to work on longer sugar chains. You also have to take into account Co2 coming out of solution

 

[Ogroat]

I brewed this up yesterday and the carboy is bubbling away. I haven’t tried the original beer - $20 a bottle is too rich when I can brew a batch for $40 and a little (lot) of patience. It’ll be my first sour beer as well, so fingers crossed.

I’m looking forward to trying this brew at some point in 2018.

 

[radwizard]

I brewed this up yesterday and the carboy is bubbling away. I haven’t tried the original beer - $20 a bottle is too rich when I can brew a batch for $40 and a little (lot) of patience. It’ll be my first sour beer as well, so fingers crossed.

I’m looking forward to trying this brew at some point in 2018.

But at least you get the Microbes with the price. That helps me justify the price of aged sours. 10 bucks for the beer, 10 bucks for the culture.

 

[suprchunk]

But at least you get the Microbes with the price. That helps me justify the price of aged sours. 10 bucks for the beer, 10 bucks for the culture.

But how much viable microbes are in a bottle? And are they at the intended ratio by the time you get them, if they are still around? I know I've had great success with Jolly Pumpkin dregs, but I haven't tried propping up any Bruery dregs. Just curious if they are as voracious as JP.

 

[radwizard]

But how much viable microbes are in a bottle? And are they at the intended ratio by the time you get them, if they are still around? I know I've had great success with Jolly Pumpkin dregs, but I haven't tried propping up any Bruery dregs. Just curious if they are as voracious as JP.

JP bottle dregs seem to be the choice bottle dregs for a lot of brewers. People have had very good success with JP in particular.

Bruery dregs are viable. They can be propped up, and of coarse will evolve into something different, as will JP dregs.

I wasn't really suggesting you could buy a bottle and pitch the dregs in order to achieve more accuracy in cloning. Just that you can use the dregs experiment with them.

I harvest, build up, taste, and blend dregs from a lot of different commercial bottles. I'm not always looking for the most aggressive stuff.

I have not harvested Tart of Darkness Dregs, so I don't know the answer to your question. They each bring something different to the table, for sure

 

[suprchunk]

I was only asking out of curiosity, re: Bruery dregs. I don't particularly care for most of their beers so don't buy them often and just wondered if they are still good from the bottle. Although the reason I don't like their beers is from a few bottles that seemed to have something other than what I thought they intended. And I don't want diabetes

 

[GJOCONNELL]

my tart of darkness has been in the frementer for 18 months GIRDING THE LOINS!!!!

 

[Ogroat]

It’s been six months since I brewed this up. The carboy has been sitting in the corner, ignored except to fill up the airlock occasionally. I’ve got a couple ounces of Hungarian oak cubes soaking in some bourbon currently. I’ll put them in the beer in a week or two and the plan is to leave it for a month or six weeks and then bottle. Looking forward to trying it around June.

 

[cwhyzee]

It’s been six months since I brewed this up. - Looking forward to trying it around June.

How did it turn out?

I brewed this on 3/30/19. It will be my first attempt at a sour and my tenth batch overall. I mashed at 156 f and my gravity was a little low at 1.049 but I did not factor in the extra gallon of wastage from trub and plumbing. This is was the second batch on my unibrau system and I am still working out the finer points of brewing with it. The math says that extra gallon accounts for my missing gravity points perfectly.

I pitched Roselare in a 6.5 gal glass carboy. My basement storage area hovers around 60 degrees so I set up an inkbird controller at 68. Has anyone fermented this recipe at lower temps closer to 60? I wonder if it will have a negative impact on flavor or just slow the whole process.

I am going to leave this be for about six months. I will check on it this September.

 

[deadwolfbones]

I brewed my attempt (sort of) back in February 2017 and packaged it in May 2018. It's incredibly tart, with the acidity probably boosted by a couple months on several pounds of blackberries. Really nice, though. Sometimes I blend it 50/50 with a nice chocolate stout.

 

[LoneTreeFarms]

brewed this up 2 weeks ago, had a strong fermentation for about 10 days, it's finally calmed down enough I could take the blow off tube off and install my airlock. did I read everything correctly that I leave it on the yeast for the full year, adding my bourbon soaked cubes at 6 months, bottle/keg this in a year?

Thanks

 

[toddo97]

brewed this up 2 weeks ago, had a strong fermentation for about 10 days, it's finally calmed down enough I could take the blow off tube off and install my airlock. did I read everything correctly that I leave it on the yeast for the full year, adding my bourbon soaked cubes at 6 months, bottle/keg this in a year?

Thanks

I racked off to secondary to reclaim my fermenter. I also didn't want to worry about autolysis.