Watering down a high OG Sour

[Casey]

So my second attempt at a sour did not go quite as good as the first. The OG ended up at 1072, which was 10 points higher than planned. After pitching the Roselare blend and fermenting down to the low 1050's, activity and attenuation has seemed to stop. temp has remained constant at 68*. My father-in-Law has suggested that boiling the O2 out of some water, cooling it and adding it to the beer to lower the abv in some sort of half-assed estimated value. We would most likely chill the beer slightly, rack it into the water leaving the yeast cake behind, then adding a new pack of Roselare to the new carboy.

My main question; is this a bad idea? Im afraid its just going to give it a watered down taste. I'd hate to invest 1+ years on something that doesn't contain the awesomeness I desire. thanks for any thoughts on this.

 

[dantheman13]

Well, I think the issues you get when you water down a high gravity wort (like a partial extract) aren't going to be as big of factor with a sour beer. With partial extracts, you get less hop utilization, and more melanoidin formation from a concentrated boil. Neither one of these things are as hugely significant in a sour beer. I've topped up high gravity sours with water, but I haven't tasted the results yet. I added maybe .5 gallons to a 5 gallon fermenter, so it wasn't a lot.

Some other thoughts: I haven't used Roeselare before, but I would be willing to bet that your gravity will slowly lower over the next year. In my experience, Brett can withstand a decent level of alcohol and keep chugging away. As long as your Sacch yeast produced some esters, you've gotten what you needed out of it IMO. How long has the beer been fermenting, and how long since the gravity seemed to have slowed?

 

[foodplusbeer]

How long has it been fermenting? Roselare is listed at having an alcohol tolerance up to 11%. I'd give your beer some time and let it go. Lots of these wild bugs like warmer temps too. If you're really concerned that it has stalled try bumping it up to around 80 degrees.

 

[metic]

I don't see any problem with adding some water, but if the beer has only gone from 1.072 to the low 1.050s I don't think it will be the alcohol levels that are inhibiting the yeast. Did you taste your sample? I suppose it could be the pH if the lacto from the blend did the majority of the fermentation so far, but I would be surprised if that had happened. I would give it another week and then check the gravity again: sacch fermentation may be continuing without visible signs.

More information about your recipe and process might also help us work out what is going on here.

 

[metic]

One more thing: if you do decide to add more yeast to restart fermentation, I wouldn't use a pack of Roeselare. The amount of sacch is relatively low in that blend. Instead I would pitch an active starter (i.e. one at high krausen) of something like US-05/1056, or maybe a belgian yeast like 3522 of 3787. If its adverse conditions prevting the fermentation from finishing, adding an active starter will give the yeast more of a chance.

 

[Calder]

Looks to me like the sacc was dead in the pack. I suspect all the fermentation that has been done so far is from the lacto.

I would recommend pitching some Belgian yeast and aerating. The sacc in the yeast pack should have gotten you down in the 1.015/1.020 range within a week.

 

[Casey]

Thanks for the great feedback. It was very helpful. The recipe is a basic Saison. Pils, Munich and Wheat malt. Old funky Hallertau hops (5 ounces in 20 gals). I used 5.2 PH stab in the. mashed at 148* w/ a slow ramp up to 168*. Boiled for 1 hour. Pitched 1 pack of Roeselare 3763 into each 5 gal carboy.

After reading everyone's comments I think that I'm probably just not being patient enough. the beer was brewed on Jan 8 2014. I just thought that the gravity would have dropped a lot more in that time. I do plan on letting it age for a year-ish or so (whenever it starts tasting good).

What I ended up doing was making a small batch of generic wort with DME. brought it to 1072, took a measured amount and added water to it until it read 1052. I scaled it up to match the 5 gallon carboy plus a little extra for evap, boiled it for 15 minutes, cooled it and added it. Now I'm going to take everyone's advice and leave it alone so it can do its thang! thanks again guys!