What should I do with extra wort intended for topping up a sour?

[bjhbrew]

Okay, I'll try to explain; I'm making my first long term sour using Wyeast's Roeselare blend and I'm wanting to ferment/age in a 6G better bottle carboy with minimal headspace. Today I brewed 6G of wort but I know that I'll have massive blow off if I put it all in the fermenter so I only put 5G in the better bottle. (This is starting off just like a 5th grade math problem haha) I added Roeselare directly to this carboy and will rely on it for primary fermentation as well as the long term sour and funkification. Now to my question, I have the extra 1G of wort from brew day and I'm figuring that I have 2 options: ferment it with a clean ale strain and add it back to the larger carboy after primary has ended OR freeze the wort and reboil for a few minutes before adding back to the larger portion after primary. In either case I'm not planning on racking the beer to secondary, I just want to top it up before the long wait begins. Has anyone done either of these? Any advice for a brewer who's pretty much new to sour brewing?

Additional info: I have the extra wort in a sanitized 1G fermenter now but I'm leaning towards just pouring it into some ziplock freezer bags and chucking it in the freezer. I'm telling myself that restarting the fermentation might be a good thing for long term oxidation avoidance but honestly I'm also feeling a little lazy.

 

[hottpeper13]

So many ways I like the freeze idea,and would spray some sanitizer inside the bag. Also since it's already been boiled I would just bring it to 180* for 10 min then chill.

Could you just put in the fridge for 2 weeks and add after high K ? Do you have a pressure caner/cooker?

 

[bjhbrew]

Thanks for the confirmation, haha. I ended up freezing the wort in ziplock bags. I like the idea of bringing it to pasteurization temp rather than boiling before adding back to the main fermenter. Fingers crossed.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Freezing, pasteurizing, adding back sounds like a good plan to me.

For extra oomph, you could use that extra gallon to prop up some bottle dregs before blending it in.

 

[bjhbrew]

Ooh, that’s an interesting idea! I’m in Canada, I’ll have to take a look at what local beers have live bacteria in the bottle.