First step to the dark side

[SpanishCastleAle]

They just had 'Sour Day' at a local beer bar (Redlight Redlight) and I finally have the itch to jump in. Wondering if I can use some surplus items I have lying around to get started.

I have a 5 gal corn whiskey barrel that I put 3 successive Porters into. They got progressively more 'raw woody' so I stopped using it. It's been sitting empty for ~9 months.
I also have ~3 gal of a Patersbier that I just don't like and will dump unless I find a good use for it. It's been in a sealed keg in my hot-as-hell garage for a month.
I have a few gallons of leftover/reserved then frozen wort from other batches, I use it for yeast starters but I have too much.

I don't really want to half-ass-it just because I have these items lying around but maybe they are just begging to be used for buggy beers.

Like perhaps getting some Brett (which one(s)?) and fermenting a couple of gallons of leftover wort, then dumping that plus the Patersbier into the barrel? Don't know if this would yield anything good but at least the barrel would be 'bugged'.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Oldsock]

You can certainly give it a shot (since it would be nearly free), but I'd probably also brew a recipe you actually brew for the bugs. I really like White labs Brett C, mild funk, lots of fruit, good place to start. Berliner Weisse is a quicker turn around if you want something sour and not just funky.

Good luck.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Thanks Oldsock.

That sounds like a plan; add Brett C to some wort and let it go then add it to the barrel (after some barrel maintenance) and then top off with the Patersbier. And also make a Berliner Weisse.

 

[bierhaus15]

And here I was thinking I was making a travesty of brewing by mixing old beer with fresh wort and lots of bugs and letting it re-ferment. I don't know if this 'method' is even practiced, but I've made some pretty darn good sours out of old beer I was just going to dump.

 

[weremichael]

And it's never too soon to make a sour saison since you're deep in the southeast. You could ferment down to 1.020 with a belgian saison yeast and add some brett l. and have a great beer come fall.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I bought a pack of Wyeast Brett B and Brett L. I made a 3 qt @ 1.040 starter and pitched the Brett B into it, it took a couple days to start but appears to be winding down now. My tentative plan was to combine this starter (the whole thing) with the Patersbier (which is a 1.050/1.012 beer) in a carboy. I could either make another starter with the Brett L and add it a week or so later or just pitch the Brett L in when I blend the Brett B/Patersbier. I'm trying to let the B get a head start on the L...just because I've heard L is more funkier and I'm still a sour/funky beer noob.

I was also considering trying to find a bottle that has live dregs and dumping the dregs in but the only two I know of are New Belgium's La Folie and Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, and I'm not sure I can find either. The bottle dregs were to try and get some bacteria (lacto, pedio) in there.

I'm still unsure whether just these Brett strains are going to get it there (where ever 'there' is) or take it too far or what. I decided to not use the barrel this time, I have some medium toast French oak cubes if needed though.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

 

[weremichael]

You would need the old La Folie that is corked and caged and any of the Jolly Pumpkin beers will work. Michael (Oldsocks) has a really comprehensive list of beers with live cultures in them on his mad fermentist blog.

Personally, I would split the batch between the Brett. B and the Brett. L. I'm not familiar with that particular beer, but I assume you've brewed the Paterbier before. Make the wort like you have done in the past, split between two fermenters, and just add the Brett. strains. That way you are playing with just the wild yeast strains and you can see what they do by themselves. Finally, you'll know if Brett. B or Brett. L is the right strain to inoculate your barrel with. Once the brett. is in the barrel, you won't be able to get it out.

 

[Oldsock]

Here is the list of harvestable bottle dregs. I just updated it with a few that have been left off.

As weremichael said from what I've read (sadly) New Belgium flash pasteurizes the 22 oz La Folie bottles. Jolly Pumpkin works great though since their beers tend to be fresh since they are bottled young.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Thanks to both of you, I printed out the list and will take it to the beer store after work today. It's all your fault if I walk out with $100 worth of funk.

ersonally, I would split the batch between the Brett. B and the Brett. L. I'm not familiar with that particular beer, but I assume you've brewed the Paterbier before. Make the wort like you have done in the past, split between two fermenters, and just add the Brett. strains. That way you are playing with just the wild yeast strains and you can see what they do by themselves. Finally, you'll know if Brett. B or Brett. L is the right strain to inoculate your barrel with. Once the brett. is in the barrel, you won't be able to get it out.

I was hoping to just keep it to one carboy (too many sitting around as it is) but I think I have a decent compromise: since I won't need the entire Patersbier batch (just most of it), maybe I'll pitch the Brett B plus dregs into most of the Patersbier and then pitch the Brett L into a 3L batch done in a 1 gal pickle jar.

I don't know if I'll ever use that barrel again, it just seemed to be imparting a nasty raw wood flavor that I didn't like, the little bit of vanilla notes it had faded almost immediately. I also read these small barrels allow too much air exchange/contact for long term use.

I have never brewed this particular Patersbier before, it was the second runnings of my first partigyle plus some DME (Dopplebock was first runnings). The whole idea here was to use the already-fermented-with-3787 Patersbier and not brew a whole new batch for this since the pipeline overfloweth and I wouldn't get to this Patersbier for months anyway. The color is in the Flanders Red/brown area.

 

[jtakacs]

And here I was thinking I was making a travesty of brewing by mixing old beer with fresh wort and lots of bugs and letting it re-ferment. I don't know if this 'method' is even practiced, but I've made some pretty darn good sours out of old beer I was just going to dump.

if it's not practiced, it's all the more reason to do it.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Meh, all I could find was a few different Hanssens and they're probably not very fresh at all. I'll let 'em settle for a bit and then decant and add some wort to the bottle...if anybody's home I'll pitch it.