TYB Farmhouse Sour Blend

[HumboldtBrewer]

So my farmhouse sour beer has been in primary for a little over 3 months now. I checked pH and FG today and it has gone from 1.041 to 0.980, making this an 8% beer. pH was sitting at 3.70. Has anyone else had this high of attenuation with this blend? I will be putting this on apricots to sit for another month.

 

[Northerngal]

No experience with it but I would love to hear how it turns out

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

Next to Amalgamation, Farmhouse Sour is my favorite yeast. The more time it has the more complex the flavor.

 

[secondbase]

This sounds great. Shamefully I haven't used anything TYB yet. I need to get busy this fall/winter.

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

I'm tasting it now and I am a little worried. It has a slight smell of mustyness and maybe, just maybe a hint of band-aid. I am fermenting this in a plastic bucket, so maybe there is some oxygen ingress promoting some slight phenolic compounds. It's not bad to where I wanna dump it, as the mustyness adds some complexity, just worried about the band-aid smell getting worse. The taste is fairly subtle, with a mellow sourness and that damp basement/mustyness coming through at the end. I guess if it gets any worse I'll pitch some Brett and see if it will clean it up.

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

This yeast can take extended time based on your fermentation temperature. I usually use it in the 75 degree range. The funky smell will dissipate with aging. TYB has some great products, you should try the Melange, Saison/Brett Blend as well. Their Vermont Ale(Conan) and Dry Belgium are my other standbys. Nothing un-sticks a fermentation better than the Dry Belgium. Been using it for about 2 years now. Good luck.

 

[berebrando]

I'm curious:

How does the acidity come across at that FG?
How did you achieve such attenuation - mash low? Ferment high? Big healthy pitch?
Did you use a starter or pitch the vial?

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

I've got TYB's Saison/Brett sitting in the fridge, and currently fermenting a IPA with their Vermont Ale yeast strain. The fruitiness coming out of airlock is amazing. I actually did a split batch with that IPA and doing 3 gallons Vermont Ale Yeast and 3 gallons Cali Ale yeast.

As for the sour, I mashed at 154 degrees for 60 minutes, kept hops down to about 5 IBU's, and just pitched the vial without a starter. Let primary fermentation go at about 72 degrees in ferm fridge, then after about 2 weeks in there I stuck it in my closet for the next 2.5 months, which was around 72-78 degrees.

The acidity is very mild in my opinion, more tart than sour. The dryness helps accentuate it but it's quite pleasant.

 

[Biobrewer]

Farmhouse Sour Ale is a higher attenuator, but I've never seen or heard of it getting down to 0.980. Have you checked your hydrometer in distilled water recently? Typically it's around 1.002-1.004 at terminal gravity. Glad you're enjoying it though!

 

[sweetcell]

I've never seen or heard of it getting down to 0.980.

i was thinking to myself, "0.980 - that must be a typo." i don't remember ever seeing a beer below 0.995.

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

getting below 1.000 is unusual but not unheard of. It happens with meads and ciders and other very high ABV beverages. Once you reach a certain level of abv sub 1.000 readings are not impossible - unlikely but not unheard of.

 

[bigplunkett]

I would just say it needs time bret will clean mist stuff up id give it 9m min but thats me

 

[sweetcell]

getting below 1.000 is unusual but not unheard of.

indeed, i've heard of beer going as far down as 0.996, and mead going to 0.990. so the OP's claim of 0.980 - 16 points lower than a super-attenuated beer, and ten points lower than any mead i've heard of - is hard to believe...

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

I'll have to calibrate my hydrometer when I get home from my two week work travel assignment. I just got this hydrometer so it is highly likely it's wrong. I will update everyone once I get home.

 

[ryanmbeal]

Just checked in on my Farmhouse Sour, 5 months old now, SG 1.000 and pH 4.18. Very mild tartness.

I kept it to only 5 IBUs and tossed some flaked oats in for the last 15 mins to favor the lacto. Kept at ambient temp after primary but that has been at least 70, max 78 over the last few months.

It's in a plastic bucket and has a thin pelicle with lots of grape sized bubbles. I thought maybe I cross contaminated with my wine thief but there is really no brett character in the flavor.

 

[Biobrewer]

Just checked in on my Farmhouse Sour, 5 months old now, SG 1.000 and pH 4.18. Very mild tartness.



I kept it to only 5 IBUs and tossed some flaked oats in for the last 15 mins to favor the lacto. Kept at ambient temp after primary but that has been at least 70, max 78 over the last few months.



It's in a plastic bucket and has a thin pelicle with lots of grape sized bubbles. I thought maybe I cross contaminated with my wine thief but there is really no brett character in the flavor.

Surprised the pH is still that high. This blend has been souring pretty aggressively at those conditions. My only thought is that the IBU was higher than calculated and that's likely inhibiting the metabolism of the Lactobacillus. My recommendation would be to make some unhopped wort, get something like our Lactobacillus Blend, sour aggressively and blend.

Cheers!

 

[crane]

Just checked in on my Farmhouse Sour, 5 months old now, SG 1.000 and pH 4.18. Very mild tartness.

I kept it to only 5 IBUs and tossed some flaked oats in for the last 15 mins to favor the lacto. Kept at ambient temp after primary but that has been at least 70, max 78 over the last few months.

It's in a plastic bucket and has a thin pelicle with lots of grape sized bubbles. I thought maybe I cross contaminated with my wine thief but there is really no brett character in the flavor.

That sounds close to my experience. After 6 months PH and SG were almost the same as yours. I also targeted 5 ibus. I was impatient and threw in some bottle dregs and 3 months later it was ready to bottle.