it's got a lot of brett, so i wouldn't be worried about leaving it on the cake.
the only reason why i'll be racking mine off most of the cake is because i want to re-use it in another beer. i plan on leaving about half the cake behind, maybe 1/3.
bug country 2014
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the only reason why i'll be racking mine off most of the cake is because i want to re-use it in another beer. i plan on leaving about half the cake behind, maybe 1/3.
Coff
Well-Known Member
I actually top off with a few ml of wort from the batch I just brewed, keeps things active and at least the jar is full. But its probably not even necessary.
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Jumpman
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i found a place near me that sells 15.8 gallon french oak wine barrels. i plan on buying one on Friday and over the weekend plan to brew up 15 gallons and get a solera project going making a lambic. probably brew 5 gallons on Saturday start the fermentation to get the pitch rate right. then Sunday brew the other 10 gallons and see where it goes from here.
How much are they?
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Jumpman
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WOOT!!!
I just placed an order for BugCounty! They've got it at Love2Brew right now. I just happened to notice they had posted about it on facebook 2 hours ago and luckily there was still some left for me to get my order in.
Can't wait to brew with it.
I just placed an order for BugCounty! They've got it at Love2Brew right now. I just happened to notice they had posted about it on facebook 2 hours ago and luckily there was still some left for me to get my order in.
Can't wait to brew with it.
TheZymurgist
Well-Known Member
$15 for shipping, good lord! Surprisingly, they still had some in stock. I'm a little shocked at the price, but I went ahead and ordered some. I'm going to use this for a three-vessel solera project.
BGBC
Well-Known Member
The USPS option for me would have been $6, but still, $17 for one vial was enough for me to pass on it. If they still had Dirty Dozen in stock, I might have done both.
Frustrating thing is, I was driving within 2 min of their retail store on Saturday and could have stopped by to pick it up in person if I had caught the announcement in time...
Frustrating thing is, I was driving within 2 min of their retail store on Saturday and could have stopped by to pick it up in person if I had caught the announcement in time...
Cost me almost $40 with shipping for two vials (Bug County/Dirty Dozen). Pricey, but I very rarely buy new yeast, and these are a special treat.
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Not sure why most people pay for the expensive shipping. If you click more carriers, they list USPS for way under half price of the UPS shipping.
That was UPS, and I did expand the dropdown. It was the cheapest option by a lot.
mbbransc
Well-Known Member
It defaults to UPS. To me, it wasn't obvious there was a USPS option until messaging with L2B directly.
I have been waiting for bug county and dirty dozen for awhile but last week I stumbled upon The Yeast Bay and I'm in Southern Cali anyways, so I was able to pick up some Amalgamation, Melangie and Lacto Brevis so I was stoked and I'll pass up the bug county this time around to see how TYB stacks up. We shall see!
I just looked at Love2brew checkout system again. You're right, there's two dropdowns, one has "more carriers" as an option. Totally not obvious, especially on a phone. That really pisses me off. Not my first order either so I've been had before. DOH!
ECY is a little more expensive than other yeasts but considering how much effort & time i'm going to put into these beers, the extra few dollars seem kinda trivial.
my two vials (ECY20 and ECY34) cost me $29.85 with shipping.
morebeer: a pack of Roeselare and a WL brett L = $24.99 with shipping. swap out the WL for Wyeast brett L and you're up to $27.47 (that last price comes down to $20.48 if you buy enough to get free shipping).
yeast bay: melange + amalgamation = $26.95.
nothing against those other fine products, but for a few extra dollars i'm happy to go with ECY.
my two vials (ECY20 and ECY34) cost me $29.85 with shipping.
morebeer: a pack of Roeselare and a WL brett L = $24.99 with shipping. swap out the WL for Wyeast brett L and you're up to $27.47 (that last price comes down to $20.48 if you buy enough to get free shipping).
yeast bay: melange + amalgamation = $26.95.
nothing against those other fine products, but for a few extra dollars i'm happy to go with ECY.
My only point with TYB was that I had just bought the melange and amalgamation otherwise I would have bought the ECY20 and ECY34!! I'm just glad because TYB doesn't have as long to travel!
Pole
Well-Known Member
You've got it good. 3 vials shipped to Denver USPS was $48.
i paid $14.93 per vial. you paid $16 - so a dollar more...
dcHokie
Well-Known Member
Free shipping on orders over $75.
Takes longer, but this time of year your yeast/bugs aren't getting cooked in a hot delivery van.
Takes longer, but this time of year your yeast/bugs aren't getting cooked in a hot delivery van.
Actually, I just looked at my receipt, the total was $40.61 for two vials, so I paid $20.30 per vial.
I'm not really irritated at the cost, just that it wasn't obvious there was a much cheaper option, and that I paid extra for nothing.
I feel the same way.
Pole
Well-Known Member
Oh, I'm not complaining, just making an observation.
FWIW, my shipping costs would have been the same if I only bought 2 vials, so they would've been closer to $18/vial. Figured I might as well grab a 3rd at that point.
I just ordered some of this and I'm pretty pumped about it. Taking inspiration from Goose Island's Madame Rose (oud bruin/sour brown). Found the ingredients on their website and threw this recipe together. Would love some feedback since this is my first attempt at a sour.
74.1% 2-Row
14.8% Wheat
3.7% Caramel 80
3.7% Special B
1.9% Chocolate
1.9% Acid Malt
1 oz Fuggles 60min
East Coast ECY20 "Bug County"
At 65% efficiency, that puts me right around 6.5-7% ABV, 12 IBUs and ~20 SRM. I plan on mashing at 158 deg. I also plan on adding wine or bourbon soaked oak cubes and sour cherries to secondary, about 2-3 months before bottling.How does this look?
74.1% 2-Row
14.8% Wheat
3.7% Caramel 80
3.7% Special B
1.9% Chocolate
1.9% Acid Malt
1 oz Fuggles 60min
East Coast ECY20 "Bug County"
At 65% efficiency, that puts me right around 6.5-7% ABV, 12 IBUs and ~20 SRM. I plan on mashing at 158 deg. I also plan on adding wine or bourbon soaked oak cubes and sour cherries to secondary, about 2-3 months before bottling.How does this look?
OK, so I have a question.
I am fiddling with a recipe for when I end up having a chance to brew a batch with this yeast. From what I've read about this blend as well as most sour blends or even pure cultured strains of lacto/pedio/brett/whatever, I can expect this to ferment out to a really low FG no matter what ingredients I use or how I mash.
Approximately how high of an attenuation should I input into my calculations, so I don't end up with a beer that is stronger than I intend?
I'm sure you might be thinking, "Why does this idiot not want his beer to be stronger than intended?"
It's just a matter of trying to match my results with my intent. As much as I can, I want the beer I end up with to be on purpose. I know I can't control everything, but this is one facet I should be able to control within a certain range based on other people's experiences.
Here's the recipe I'm fiddling with, in case you want that info before giving me your guess of how low it'll ferment. I'm calling it County Western, as a play on the fact that many people (including me) have made the mistake of calling the yeast Bug Country.
8 gallon batch
mash @ 154 - 60 min.
mashout @ 170 - 10 min.
2-row - 10 lb - 60.2%
White Wheat - 3 lb - 18%
Brown Malt - 2 lb - 12%
Crystal 80 - 1 lb - 6%
Chocolate Malt - 10 oz - 3.8%
0.3 oz. - Calypso - AA 15.3% - 60 min - 10 IBU
OG - 1.056
SRM - 24
IBU - 10
What do you think?
I am fiddling with a recipe for when I end up having a chance to brew a batch with this yeast. From what I've read about this blend as well as most sour blends or even pure cultured strains of lacto/pedio/brett/whatever, I can expect this to ferment out to a really low FG no matter what ingredients I use or how I mash.
Approximately how high of an attenuation should I input into my calculations, so I don't end up with a beer that is stronger than I intend?
I'm sure you might be thinking, "Why does this idiot not want his beer to be stronger than intended?"
It's just a matter of trying to match my results with my intent. As much as I can, I want the beer I end up with to be on purpose. I know I can't control everything, but this is one facet I should be able to control within a certain range based on other people's experiences.
Here's the recipe I'm fiddling with, in case you want that info before giving me your guess of how low it'll ferment. I'm calling it County Western, as a play on the fact that many people (including me) have made the mistake of calling the yeast Bug Country.
8 gallon batch
mash @ 154 - 60 min.
mashout @ 170 - 10 min.
2-row - 10 lb - 60.2%
White Wheat - 3 lb - 18%
Brown Malt - 2 lb - 12%
Crystal 80 - 1 lb - 6%
Chocolate Malt - 10 oz - 3.8%
0.3 oz. - Calypso - AA 15.3% - 60 min - 10 IBU
OG - 1.056
SRM - 24
IBU - 10
What do you think?
Looks good! I brewed today with the RU55 recipe (THANKS BGBC!) - mashed at 157º.
I haven't pitched the Bug County yet. I had planned to pitch at 80º, but I see on the side of the jar it says 65-74... Wort is now chilled to 68º
Wondering about oxygenation as well- yes or no?
Thinking about giving it a bit of oxygen, pitch at 68º and let it rise to ambient temp (72-74 in my basement).
Also the yeast has a September production date. Sort of late to do anything about that now though.
I brewed with Bug Farm over the summer and pitched at 72 I think, but with no oxygenation. Little if any visible krausen and nothing came blowing out the blow-off tube in my conical filled past the seal by the way.
Going to get cleaned up then check back for some responses from awesome HBT members!!
:rockin:
TD
I haven't pitched the Bug County yet. I had planned to pitch at 80º, but I see on the side of the jar it says 65-74... Wort is now chilled to 68º
Wondering about oxygenation as well- yes or no?
Thinking about giving it a bit of oxygen, pitch at 68º and let it rise to ambient temp (72-74 in my basement).
Also the yeast has a September production date. Sort of late to do anything about that now though.
I brewed with Bug Farm over the summer and pitched at 72 I think, but with no oxygenation. Little if any visible krausen and nothing came blowing out the blow-off tube in my conical filled past the seal by the way.
Going to get cleaned up then check back for some responses from awesome HBT members!!
:rockin:
TD
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I would hit it with a little oxygen, never hurts. I might also pitch it with a small amount of sacch as well. Hope it turns out well, i used mine on the RU55 clone as well!
So I did give the wort a good 60 sec dose of oxygen and pitched at 68. OG was 2 points higher than 1.055 target because of greater boil off.
Now I wait 12 months
TD
Now I wait 12 months
TD
Remmy
Drink First, Ask Questions Later
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That's crazy!
I saw $11/vial this weekend and shipping was $5.75 (USPS).
$27.75 and done.
looks like a solid recipe. only thing that caught my eye is having the oak in there for 2 or 3 months. depending how much you use it could be too much. would be problematic if after 1 month you've got plenty of oak but the cherries weren't done. or, you wait out the cherries and end up with an oak bomb. i would start with the cherries, then do the oak at 1 or 1.5 months. if you need more oak, it won't hurt to leave the beer on the cherries a little longer.
given the bugs in this blend, i would conservatively estimate that the beer will reach 1.000 to be safe. at your predicted OG this would put you at around 7.3% abv. if the beer stops at 1.005, you'd be at 6.67%.
anyone who thinks that is the true idiot. too much alcohol can suppress sourness. it can also limit the quantity you can/should consume.
Thanks for your reply. I wound up brewing this a couple weeks ago with everything the same except 1lb raw wheat + 1lb munich instead of 2lbs wheat, and replaced the chocolate with Carafa I. We'll see what happens in a year or two.
It's interesting how I've read such conflicting info on oak cubes. I know it's a "taste as you go" kinda thing, but I could have sworn I read cubes for about 2-3 months was pretty standard. You are definitely right though; don't want to overdo it. I will definitely dig a little deeper into the topic when the time comes. Regardless, my first sour is on the way and I'm pretty excited.
BGBC
Well-Known Member
I would say it depends on the cubes. I've got a set that I've moved from beer to beer for 3-4 rounds now. I also boiled them a couple times after moving them from the first to second beers. I'm sure they've lost most of their oak character by now and are more of a food for the bugs, with more subtle flavor contributions. I've got them in a Flanders Red and plan to keep them there for more than 2-3 months.
It's similar to barrels. If it's first use, you're going to get more character more quickly, but with more uses they'll contribute less character. You can accelerate this with cubes by boiling them in fresh water and dumping the water.
For another Flanders Red I brewed with a friend, we're using new oak cubes, so we boiled them 3x and have them soaking in red wine. Planning to add them when we rack to secondary, then leave them in from there.
I think it depends on if the cubes are brand new or already used. If new, they impart a lot of flavor in a few days. If they've been used or soaked prior to adding to the beer, the flavor will be more mild and take longer to extract into the beer.
I finally got around to brewing up this batch. I made a couple slight changes, though. I dropped the 2-row down to just 9 lbs. and the chocolate malt down to 8 oz. That left the predicted OG at 1.052, I think. But I overshot that a bit and got to 1.055 for almost 80% efficiency. I was happy with that.
I split the 8 gallons pretty evenly into two carboys. Then I pitched a total of about 75 mL of the ECY Bug County, split between the two fermenters. That leaves me with another 50 mL to brew up another batch. There was a little lag, but not a ton. It was maybe 24 hours before I saw some pressure starting to build up in the airlocks. And at 36 hours, the bubbling was steady. I'm looking at having a relatively cool fermentation, though. because I don't have a way to warm up the fermenters. Also, the only good spot I can put them is in the basement (I have a 2 year old and can't leave them on the main floor of the house).
Anyway, I'm excited to have this batch brewed and fermenting.
I was looking back at the ECY website to remind myself of what all is in the blend (even though I knew the info wasn't too specific). But I noticed this phrase that I didn't remember noticing in the past: "other wild yeast seen in spontaneous fermentations are also included (such as Pichia and Kloeckera)."
I did a quick googling and saw that they are considered non-saccharomyces yeasts, but Pichia is part of the Saccharomycetaceae family. That is just according to Wikipedia, though. I did see an article aimed at wine makers about how to recognize these (and other) strains of yeast that might be found naturally on grapes and also how to monitor them and make sure they don't overwhelm the dominant saccharomyces strain.
If anybody can shed some light on these strains and what they might contribute to the fermentation and the end product flavor profile, I would love to hear about it.
FredTheNuke
Well-Known Member
love2brew.com has ECY20 BugCounty 2014 in stock this morning. Haul ass and you might get some!!!
I'm thinking it's about time for a brew close to Tart of Darkness but not exactly ToD.
I add my oak cubes for many many months - this simulates aging in a barrel. Of course those barrels are used so I boil my cubes for 10 minutes then soak them in bourbon or pinot noir for 4-6 months before adding about 2.0 oz (by weight - weighed after the soaking so while wet) per 6 gallons of beer. Cubes were originally American Medium Plus - so slightly strong on the toast.
Some further cube math:
57 square inches of barrel surface area per gallon of beer averaged with a standard 53 gallon wine barrel. The oak cubes I have are 1/2x1/2x3/8 inches. This equates to 1.25 square inches per cube. That would be 45.6 cubes per gallon of beer. 46 cubes weigh 1.20 oz dry. I do not yet have an exact weight wet. This math would put somewhere around 7 oz of cubes into a standard 6 gallon batch. Although this would equal the barrel I have yet to try that much. Oldsock recommended 0.15 oz per gallon weighed dry in his book.
I'm thinking it's about time for a brew close to Tart of Darkness but not exactly ToD.
I add my oak cubes for many many months - this simulates aging in a barrel. Of course those barrels are used so I boil my cubes for 10 minutes then soak them in bourbon or pinot noir for 4-6 months before adding about 2.0 oz (by weight - weighed after the soaking so while wet) per 6 gallons of beer. Cubes were originally American Medium Plus - so slightly strong on the toast.
Some further cube math:
57 square inches of barrel surface area per gallon of beer averaged with a standard 53 gallon wine barrel. The oak cubes I have are 1/2x1/2x3/8 inches. This equates to 1.25 square inches per cube. That would be 45.6 cubes per gallon of beer. 46 cubes weigh 1.20 oz dry. I do not yet have an exact weight wet. This math would put somewhere around 7 oz of cubes into a standard 6 gallon batch. Although this would equal the barrel I have yet to try that much. Oldsock recommended 0.15 oz per gallon weighed dry in his book.
Came here to make a similar alert.... after placing my own order, of course.
Excited to get my hands on it. I just brewed 2 x 3 gallon batches for souring; one with Roeselare and the other with a culture built up in a prior batch from Boon, Drie Fontenein, and New Glarus R&D dregs. I wasn't planning to put another batch in the sour pipeline until summer, but I guess I'll need to ready another batch of wort for the ECY20 now.
Excited to get my hands on it. I just brewed 2 x 3 gallon batches for souring; one with Roeselare and the other with a culture built up in a prior batch from Boon, Drie Fontenein, and New Glarus R&D dregs. I wasn't planning to put another batch in the sour pipeline until summer, but I guess I'll need to ready another batch of wort for the ECY20 now.
I just racked my ECY20 beer to secondary on the 1st. Brewed some simple extract beer the throw on the yeast cake to see what happens.
Here is the recipe my recipe and notes so far:
The extract batch is literally just 5 gallons of water and extract to 1.048 with about 3 IBU. I can only fit 2 beers in the fermentation fridge so it is fermenting at basement temp next to the other beer. Activity just became visible today, a slight foam forming on top.
I still have half of the vial left and will probably brew something and add dregs for some variety.
Here is the recipe my recipe and notes so far:
The extract batch is literally just 5 gallons of water and extract to 1.048 with about 3 IBU. I can only fit 2 beers in the fermentation fridge so it is fermenting at basement temp next to the other beer. Activity just became visible today, a slight foam forming on top.
I still have half of the vial left and will probably brew something and add dregs for some variety.
After a few more days, both carboys of what I'm calling County Western are fermenting along just fine. Lots of airlock activity and a nice 3/4 inch or so of krausen.
The one difference between the two carboys of this split batch that I'm aware of is that one of them got all the proteins and little bit of hop gunk and the other one is virtually trub free before pitching yeast. I'm curious to see how that might effect the flavor of the end product. I don't know if the bugs can eat through any of that gunk, but if it can I've gotta think that will cause some variation in the flavor of the two versions of the batch.
I'm planning on splitting this batch even further. I've got four 1 gallon fermenters that I planning on using for adding some fruit or a couple different kinds of wood.
Anybody have thoughts on how cacao nibs might fit with a dark sour? I've got some that I picked up with a gift card a while back and haven't come up with another beer that I want to use them in quite yet.
The one difference between the two carboys of this split batch that I'm aware of is that one of them got all the proteins and little bit of hop gunk and the other one is virtually trub free before pitching yeast. I'm curious to see how that might effect the flavor of the end product. I don't know if the bugs can eat through any of that gunk, but if it can I've gotta think that will cause some variation in the flavor of the two versions of the batch.
I'm planning on splitting this batch even further. I've got four 1 gallon fermenters that I planning on using for adding some fruit or a couple different kinds of wood.
Anybody have thoughts on how cacao nibs might fit with a dark sour? I've got some that I picked up with a gift card a while back and haven't come up with another beer that I want to use them in quite yet.
