Wahoo
Well-Known Member
Been making sour beers for a few years now, and the one problem that seems to consistently show up is relatively high levels of diacetyl, which comes across as a honeyish, Cheerios, or at its worst, buttered popcorn, taste.
I have made sours a number of different ways.... Fermented in glass with a starter made from bottle dregs, fermented in glass with a wyeast yeast/bacteria blend, fermented in a small barrel with a wyeast blend, fermented clean in primary and then racked onto a sour cake for secondary. I have made both lambic style worts with pils malt and flaked wheat, Saison worts with mostly pils, and Flemish red type worts with a fair amount of specialty malts. I bottle condition all of them, and use table sugar to prime, at a rate of 1oz per gallon. My brother, who kegs his sours, also has a similar problem in some, but not all of his sour beers.
Diacetyl is never a problem in my non-sours, of which I've made many.
The problem seems to crop up most often during bottle conditioning, but does go away with time... Many many months. In subtle cases, it almost tastes like the unfermented priming sugar added. In extreme cases it seriously detracts from the enjoyablility of the beer. I have never observed ropiness, but I did have a starter that seemed oily once.
Two things I'm considering trying.
A. The addition of brettanomyces late in the fermentation, to clean up the off favors. The downside of this is that I'll probably have to extend an already Long fermentation .
Or B. reyeast with an ale strain at bottling, so that the refermentation is done by a familiar friend, rather than whoever just won the steel cage match in the fermenter.
Has Anyone experienced this problem? Have you tried one of the processes above with a sour?
I have made sours a number of different ways.... Fermented in glass with a starter made from bottle dregs, fermented in glass with a wyeast yeast/bacteria blend, fermented in a small barrel with a wyeast blend, fermented clean in primary and then racked onto a sour cake for secondary. I have made both lambic style worts with pils malt and flaked wheat, Saison worts with mostly pils, and Flemish red type worts with a fair amount of specialty malts. I bottle condition all of them, and use table sugar to prime, at a rate of 1oz per gallon. My brother, who kegs his sours, also has a similar problem in some, but not all of his sour beers.
Diacetyl is never a problem in my non-sours, of which I've made many.
The problem seems to crop up most often during bottle conditioning, but does go away with time... Many many months. In subtle cases, it almost tastes like the unfermented priming sugar added. In extreme cases it seriously detracts from the enjoyablility of the beer. I have never observed ropiness, but I did have a starter that seemed oily once.
Two things I'm considering trying.
A. The addition of brettanomyces late in the fermentation, to clean up the off favors. The downside of this is that I'll probably have to extend an already Long fermentation .
Or B. reyeast with an ale strain at bottling, so that the refermentation is done by a familiar friend, rather than whoever just won the steel cage match in the fermenter.
Has Anyone experienced this problem? Have you tried one of the processes above with a sour?