Souring with bacteria, the cure for stale beer?

[mattiasnordell]

Hi
I have a batch of what can best be described as a wheat chocolate oatmeal stout, where all pilsner malt was substituted for wheat malt, the only barley found in the dark malts. It had a fairly high FG of around 1017, OG 1055. It was fabulous but staled faster than I had hoped and was used to. It then occurred to me, could it get good again if I added a Belgian bug mix? Could it be the case that the lacto, pedio and bretts could chew up the staling compounds given a year or so or would I just waste my and my keg’s time?
Have I just suggested the cure for stale beer? [emoji6]

/Mattias

 

[bucketnative]

Good question, but I don't have the answer.

This reminds me of a photography forum on which I used to participate where someone would ask, "Should I take my out-of- focus, motion blurred photo, make it high contrast black and white, and then call it art?"

Hey, sometimes it works!

I'll be interested to see the answers that others provide.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

If the "staling" of the beer is oxidation I don't think bugs will help any, but maybe someone has experience or first-hand knowledge of trying this out.

 

[mattiasnordell]

Since I just remenbered I have a bunch of 5 liter glass carboys not being used I might just try it. But if someone has experience from it, it would of course be interesting to hear about it.

I have pitched bugs afterward in experimental brews that didn’t turn out so great but where I think time and microorganisms can remove some edges and change the flavor profile, eg smoke beer with some fruit juice. But they have not been souring enough time yet to tell the result.

Has nobody tried this with stale beer?
Should I add som kind of extract to get them going?
/Mattias (sour noob)

 

[RPh_Guy]

I once had a commercial mixed Brett sour that tasted like cardboard. It was disgusting.
Brett cultures in my ranch definitely oxidize and I've also oxidized a larger batch of mixed Brett beer due to some unfortunate circumstances.
Therefore I believe Brett will not fix your beer, at least not short-term (3-6 months).

However, if you just let it age longer the flavor might go from cardboard to sherry.
Sometimes people lose carboys for 2-5 years and the beer allegedly isn't horrible.

Personally I just dump beer when oxidation makes it unpleasant, whether I made it or not. I use my fermenter and fridge space for stuff that's good

 

[mattiasnordell]

I do agree with you, best to have good beer. However, now with two kids in a demanding age the frequency of my brewing is not what I would like. But, turns out I didn’t have as much of the stale beer as I thought. I guess it is a good thing. The experiment will have to wait. However, I will keep you posted if I try it out.

Mattias

 

[mattiasnordell]

Picking up on my old post. I actually found 10 bottles of the stale beer. They taste slightly better than the keg did but there is definitely something wrong there too. Possibly a slight infection, or too old malt used (though I don't really know what that would taste like), maybe a slow Brett infection but stale nevertheless. But I have found a cure! Sort of anyway. I used it for baking. It turned out great! The beer btw was an outmeal, chocolate wheat stout. Very good to begin with.