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I'm brewing more BGSA than I want or can drink.
Is there any way to take half the finished beer, and sour it?
Would this be a good base for a sour? Can I make adjustments to the finished beer to make it better for souring, like adding lactose or maltodextrin? What bugs do you recommend? Any and all advice is appreciated.
Grain bill is typical: 82% Pilsen, 14% sugar, 2% Cara8, 2% Aromatic. OG: 1.081. IBU: about 28-30. ABV: high.
Thanks!
Posted 34 days ago.
What's the FG? I would put that in a barrel with some Brett Brux and dump dregs from a few sour beers along the way.
One word of warning. High ABV seems to force Brett to throw some really odd flavors, like tobacco. 2 years in and my tobacco-ey triple is finally turning good in the bottle.
Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by mchrispen
@mchrispen: that's the sort of info I was looking for. Which Brett strain did you use?
The yeast is new, so I'm not sure what to expect for ADF, but I'm planning on 82%, which will give me an FG of 1.015 and 8.7% abv. And IBU 32.
There's no high-IBU tolerant Lactobacillus or Pediococcus, right?
Posted 34 days ago.
I pitched two vials of Brett Brux and one on Trois (we know now that is a wild sac). After primary with blended Trappist High Gravity and Ardennes in primary. Took abou two weeks for wood flavors to be evident, and heavy Brett tropical fruits at first, then at 4 months it started to sour... During a very hot summer. Topped up with pils and saison along the way. Dregs included Roselaire, some Jester King and many bottles of Russian River Sanctification and Damnation. Aroma was sweet tarts and cherries, tasted of spice, sour pineapple and tobacco. The goaty bit faded as the sourness came up.
Tonsmierre tasted it at Dixie Cup and was positive. I liked it, but definitely got a bit weird as it soured. I should have put it on berries. Give the lacto time and it will compete, but 32 ibu might be a touch too high.
Honestly I have never liked single strain wild ferments... Always seems like something is missing.
Posted 34 days ago.
What is BGSA?
Pediococcus is hop tolerant, L.Brevis to some extent and it can be 'trained' to up to ~35 IBU.
Blending work pretty well for souering. Make a decent batch, no hops, no boil and add L.brevis*, let it go until finished (a week or two) @22°C. The perfect time to blend would be just after the krausen of the other beer drops so the yeasts can make use of the acids to make esters, at that moment you could also pitch an non-killer wine yeast as they are more acid tolerant. The blending also works with an already finished beer together with Brett.
Actually any bacteria that make acids are fine (except acetobacter&co), even better is a blend of bacteria. The wider the range of acids that are produced by them the wider and more interesting the range of esters. The oakiness of Rodenbach is mainly due to the products of the microflora than due to the oak of the vessels.
Posted 34 days ago.
I assumed Belgian Golden Strong Ale... as opposed to the tripel category. Both are my favorites.
A couple of observations: The char in the barrel seems to affect phenols. Mine went from really nice to a banana bomb in just a week - was really strange and I was pretty disappointed, and just let it go in the summer heat for three more months before tasting - it got really nice, the banana faded, some of that goaty aroma & hay came into and that pineapple thing came on strong. I have just a couple of them left - opened one last night to refresh my memory.
I asked Mike T about the tobacco - he supposed it might have been oxidation of the hops, but also speculated that some autolysis may have occurred with the crazy heat - that sat well over 95F for at least a month in the garage.
Finally, if you age that long and with high alcohol - make sure to pitch new yeast with the priming sugar at bottling. Mine just refused to carb up, reopened and krausened they are fine now.
Posted 34 days ago.
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