Recent content by mjleslie

I was thinking the same thing. Is this a typical method for souring a Berliner? Just age it on the malt?

That's an interesting observation for sure. I guess it could be attributed to a Brett infection in the barrel which would consume more of the complex sugars you intended to leave behind with a clean fermentation. So you are topping off with already fermented beer and not wort? I wonder if...

Mmmm sounds tasty. Definitely worth a shot

I'm in the same boat. There is no way I have the space nor the production capacity to fill a standard barrel. Here's a pic of the barrel. I bought it from a ubrew winery down the road from me. I'm in Vancouver and I'm pretty sure it came from barrel-maker form the Okanogon.

Some good feedback, thanks. You have a good point about topping up to keep the barrel fully hydrated. That alone is reason enough to keep it full. I'm in a more humid climate so I should expect similar, if not less, rate of evaporation. I can live with adding a couple oz per month. I...

I've got a batch of spontaneously fermented cider from my yard. The wild microbes had no problem fermenting on their own even after been frozen for a few weeks. It took about 2 months before all the off-flavours disappeared but now it has really come around. I'm thinking of collecting the trub...

Bought a used 6 gal red wine barrel for ageing sours. After about a week I finally got the thing rehydrated and holding liquid. Now I've got an Oude Bruin in there and all seems in good working order. I'd like to understand more about the evaporation in a small barrel. I know it is faster...

Not a pellicle but a series of pics about 12 hrs apart of my latest 100% brett lambicus brew. Yeast was under pitched (straight from the white labs vial) but this certainly didn't slow down the Brett! First signs of activity after 48hrs

OK 48 hrs later and I have some activity. I bumped up the heat and that seems to have helped things along. I'm seeing rings of white bubbly foam starting to form and the distinctive smell of sour dairy (I'm assuming from the lacto in the acid malt).

I just pitched WLP653 Brett Lambicus into the Mo Betta Bretta clone recipe I got from "American Sour beers". I probably should have, but I didn't do a starter as I was right at the end of the best before date. It's been 24 hrs and no activity yet... should I be concerned or just let the Brett...

Great summer activity I just did my first home juiced batch of apples and I found freezing then thawing softened the fruit up plenty for juicing. I seemed to get a pretty good yield with no crushing at all. Obviously this only works if you have a lot of extra freezer space

If you are juicing yourself, freezing the apples whole and then thawing breaks down the cells and softens them up. Just bag them tightly to avoid too much browning

New old fruit press + apple trees in full fruit = lots of juice for me to experiment with. Anyone just let a bucket of cider sit outside and see if it catches anything? I'm guessing there are probably wild yeasts already in the apples? I'm thinking of just covering with a cheesecloth and...

That's a funky looking cider! I've got my first sour beer on the go and I was wondering if anyone has had success with sour cider. Did you use dregs from a beer or buy the brett? Do you think bottle dregs from a beer would mess with the apple flavour?

Just getting a few batches of cider going and I was thinking of doing one with oak. I have some oak chips sitting in a sour beer right now and I was planning on leaving them in for the life of the ferment (6+ months) but I'm not sure how the taste affects cider... One of my favourite local...