Will Butyric Acid age out after bottling?

[ICWiener]

Hi all,

Just had my first run in with the notorious 'vomit' flavor in one of my sours. Admittedly I screwed up by bottling it a bit prematurely. It's not awful, the flavor's just a background note. But it's prevalent enough that I'm not going to go reaching for a bottle any time soon.

So, I know that it will age out over time in bulk, with the Brett doing most of the cleanup work. But can one expect the same results after it's been bottled? Just wondering if anyone here has had experience with this.

 

[ColoHox]

There is such a low threshold for this flavor, that it may take a really long time to go away, if it does at all. If you can forget about them for a year, then go for it.

The Brett cleanup will require a low level of exposure to oxygen, among other things, so a sealed bottle might work better than a carboy.

Good luck.

 

[Oldsock]

Butyric is converted to an ester (ethyl butyrate), so it isn’t like it needs to off-gas. As a result it should clean up in the bottle just as well as it would in bulk, however it could be more variable bottle-to-bottle. Conversion isn’t complete, but because the level is low, you’ve got a good shot. Store then at cool room temperature (back of a closet, in a plastic tote if you are worried about bottling too early), and try to forget about them!

 

[ICWiener]

Thanks guys,

Forgetting about them is easy. I've got a closet full of sours. Letting these ones sit in the back for a year isn't a problem at all.

I think the issue was that I used dregs that might have had some bugs in them (Fantome Hiver). I usually stick to Brett on its own in this particular recipe. So even though it was at 1.000 when I bottled, it probably needed more time to smooth out those flavors.