Belgian sour, when's it ready - Methods and Techniques Discussions on Home Brew Forums

Benvarine

I have a Belgian sour going, I was planning on fermenting for a year. However, the pellicle has dropped and I heard to leave about a month more and then bottle/keg. I am a few weeks away from the 6 month mark now. Is it about done or do I wait another 6 months.

frydogbrews

what's it taste like?

Benvarine

I don't know. Was always scared to taste. Didn't want to break the pellicle. Now that its falling back in, I should check it.

Thym

Sorry I don't have anything useful to add, but I'm looking forward to hearing about this experiment.

what bugs did you throw in there?

Benvarine

I used Roeselare yeast from Wyeast. It has Brett in it along with saccromyoces yeast. Spelling is off, too lazy to look it up.

Fuzzy

ok, at what point did you add the roselaire? and have you been feeding it?

also, what was the og?

as far as when it'll be ready is up to your personal tastes, but i'd probably shoot for around 8-9 months to start trying it.

Benvarine

OG was 1.063. I added Roeselare yeast, wyeast 3763 when I originally pitched. I racked after a few weeks, SG was 1.022. Went from bucket to glass. Pellicle formed three months after pitching and is breaking apart now, 6 months into it. I have not tasted or checked gravity. This is a kit from Williams Brewing, all extract.

Fuzzy

in that case, give it a taste. if it's not as funky as you want, add a little dme or maltodextrine and wait another 3 months. if the sourness is where you want, check gravity and bottle. you can't tone down flavors once they develop, but you can always let them increase. you can blend, but that's a pain.

Benvarine

Ok. I'll do it. If I want to add some, how much is a little?

Fuzzy

and don't bottle unless the gravity really low already. this yeast blend attenuates really low, so you there is a risk of bottle bombs if you bottle before it finishes.

Fuzzy

Benvarine said:
Ok. I'll do it. If I want to add some, how much is a little?

i'd start with a 1/2# and see where that gets you. yeast blends can get a little unpredictable, so you don't want to overdo anything.

Fuzzy

i know that @ace_club has a lambic that's going to be ready to drink sooner than later. maybe he can add some insight into his experience with soured beers.

Benvarine

Ok. I tested. I'm at 1.015 now. Smells sour and like Brett. Tastes pretty good, not too funky, certainly sour with Brett character. A little musty taste maybe. Brown reddish color. I can taste it toward the back of my tongue on the outsides.

Thym

Benvarine said:
Ok. I tested. I'm at 1.015 now. Smells sour and like Brett. Tastes pretty good, not too funky, certainly sour with Brett character. A little musty taste maybe. Brown reddish color. I can taste it toward the back of my tongue on the outsides.

I know im limited in my usefullness here, but 015 sounds a bit high for final gravity with these bugs. brett is going to want to take it down to 010 or lower. i'd give it 2 weeks and check the gravity. if it's not dropped more than a point or two then you might be ok, but i would assume it's still working on the residual sugars. as FZ mentioned bottling early with these mischievous characters is likely to end badly.

Benvarine

That's more like it. Thanks for input. I'll give it a few weeks, which means a month most likely.

ceannt

I don't know buddy, sounds like that batch is infected to me.... you might want to dump it.......
;)

Fuzzy

Lakewood said:

Benvarine said:
Ok. I tested. I'm at 1.015 now. Smells sour and like Brett. Tastes pretty good, not too funky, certainly sour with Brett character. A little musty taste maybe. Brown reddish color. I can taste it toward the back of my tongue on the outsides.

I know im limited in my usefullness here, but 015 sounds a bit high for final gravity with these bugs. brett is going to want to take it down to 010 or lower. i'd give it 2 weeks and check the gravity. if it's not dropped more than a point or two then you might be ok, but i would assume it's still working on the residual sugars. as FZ mentioned bottling early with these mischievous characters is likely to end badly.

way too high to bottle. if it were just brett, it would behave like normal Saccharomyces, but with the mix of bugs, it will go much lower, but very slowly. i'd say leave it alone for a few months and see how much the gravity drops.

Benvarine

Ok. Thanks.

Benvarine

I re-read some text from the kit. They say it should finish at least at 1.024, if not lower. I'm at 1.015. I know the instruction sheets can be pretty bogus and very generic. Any thoughts with this new info?

Thym

Benvarine said:
I re-read some text from the kit. They say it should finish at least at 1.024, if not lower. I'm at 1.015. I know the instruction sheets can be pretty bogus and very generic. Any thoughts with this new info?

i would still wait a minimum of 2 weeks and check gravity. if it hasn't dropped then you are ok. if it drops a solid two points then you are still fermenting and bottle bombs are a real possibility.

I always use gravity readings as the gauge of activity.

as far as kit instructions, they are all really opaque generalizations of what the brewing process is. even mine. a kit that says you will end up with a 024 FG or lower is basically saying, "it might stall - we don't know".

Fuzzy

Benvarine said:
I re-read some text from the kit. They say it should finish at least at 1.024, if not lower. I'm at 1.015. I know the instruction sheets can be pretty bogus and very generic. Any thoughts with this new info?

for a normal extract beer, that's solid. but the wild bugs you added are able to eat up those long chain dextrines that would normally be left over from the beer yeasts.