Good microbe blend for sours?

[acarter5251]

Hi, I am planning on getting a sour pipeline going as I brew some clean beers. I plan to reserve 1 gallon of my next few beers to make a sour version. Is this a good way to get started brewing sours?

I also was wondering what commercial microbe blends make especially good sours? I have some dregs from a bottle of Provenance from Jester King, but I do not think that this is quite enough to make as many sours as I would like to get going and I would like to give some blends a try.

Thanks in advance!

 

[masonsjax]

Straight commercial blends, East Coast Yeast makes my favorites. Keep an eye on this page for Bugfarm and Bug County to be available.
http://www.love2brew.com/East-Coast-Yeast-Liquid-Yeast-s/217.htm

Looks like Bug County is available now.

That said, the best sour beers I've ever had have come from my carboy that I throw everything into. It's got every yeast, brett, and bacteria I've ever used and all the viable commercial bottle dregs I can get. There's even a bit of kombucha scoby in there. Those beers are complex and interesting and sour up nicely in a reasonable time.

The best way to get into sours is to make tons of them, since the feedback loop is so long and because first generations don't always sour up enough. Just keep making them and reusing the cakes. Soon you'll have a full pipeline and a steady stream of awesome sours to sip on.

 

[acarter5251]

Straight commercial blends, East Coast Yeast makes my favorites. Keep an eye on this page for Bugfarm and Bug County to be available.
http://www.love2brew.com/East-Coast-Yeast-Liquid-Yeast-s/217.htm

Looks like Bug County is available now.

That said, the best sour beers I've ever had have come from my carboy that I throw everything into. It's got every yeast, brett, and bacteria I've ever used and all the viable commercial bottle dregs I can get. There's even a bit of kombucha scoby in there. Those beers are complex and interesting and sour up nicely in a reasonable time.

The best way to get into sours is to make tons of them, since the feedback loop is so long and because first generations don't always sour up enough. Just keep making them and reusing the cakes. Soon you'll have a full pipeline and a steady stream of awesome sours to sip on.

Thanks! I plan on getting maybe 6 going at once, so I may try a few blends, but definitely will try those ECY ones if I can get my hands on them.

When you reuse the yeast cakes, do you just rack onto the cake with the new wort and allow it to go, or do you pitch additional yeast and bugs as well?

 

[crane]

Pulling a gallon off each brew is a great idea for trying out different bottle dregs. I have 5 different 1 gallon jugs going now with various bottle dregs. Check out this thread from @almighty.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=189748

In addition this, check out this site. It's got a page listing all the bugs and Brett in various commercial bottles.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com

If you are going to do some full size batches then I also suggest East Coast yeast.

 

[acarter5251]

Pulling a gallon off each brew is a great idea for trying out different bottle dregs. I have 5 different 1 gallon jugs going now with various bottle dregs. Check out this thread from @almighty.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=189748

In addition this, check out this site. It's got a page listing all the bugs and Brett in various commercial bottles.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com

If you are going to do some full size batches then I also suggest East Coast yeast.

How do you deal with hopping when splitting batches? For example, if I wanted to make a base that was a saison with around 15 IBU would this be detrimental for the souring bugs? Would I want to pull the gallon before the boil in that case?

 

[crane]

How do you deal with hopping when splitting batches? For example, if I wanted to make a base that was a saison with around 15 IBU would this be detrimental for the souring bugs? Would I want to pull the gallon before the boil in that case?

Yup. I've usually done this when I brew with pilsner so I'll do a 90 min boil. Boil for 30 min, drain off a gallon, then add a 60 min bittering charge. Other times it's when I'm already brewing a larger batch of a low ibu sour beer so I just boil as normal pull the gallon at the end.

 

[coypoo]

Any benefit to having different yeast cakes? I have some Brett B leftovers, and have ordered TYB Amalgamation, Brett Brussels Blend, and Melange. I was trying to keep them separate to promote variability in my sours (and maybe make some cool blends) but should I just make 1 "mega" mixed culture and go from there?

 

[Sourz4life]

East Coast Yeast, The Yeast Bay, bootleg biology, Bright yeast labs, RVA labs, Gigayeast, Imperial, and Omega Yeast labs have all be places I've gotten brett/bacteria strains. I've had luck with all of them in their own ways.

 

[masonsjax]

Reusing cakes, I will usually dump off some of the excess cake every other batch or so. Not at all scientific but works well. If the previous batch was in there for a long time, I might ferment with ale yeast before putting it on the bacteria. If it hasn't been too long, I just throw it in.

As for separate or blend, I like to keep everything separate for several batches to see what each is capable of, but also have the one carboy that's the mega blend that gets a pinch of everything possible. That one has been my favorite, but the individual strains and blends turn out great too.

 

[coypoo]

I also have the one carboy that's the mega blend that gets a pinch of everything possible. That one has been my favorite, but the individual strains and blends turn out great too.

Just in a 1 gal that you'll periodically feed?

 

[masonsjax]

Just in a 1 gal that you'll periodically feed?

I've not done many small batches. Most of my sours have been in 6 gal carboys or 15.5 gal sanke kegs, but I don't see why the same process couldn't work on a small scale as well.