My first lambic (I think)

[troy2000]

I just opened another bottle of a saison I've been drinking for a couple of weeks. Unlike the others, it was a little tart and sour - and totally delicious, instead of just OK.

I assume I caught a wild bug in that particular bottle, and I'd love to do it on purpose next time. Should I have kept the dregs for a starter? Didn't think about it, until the last drop was drained....

 

[blizzard]

You should try opening a few more bottles to see if it is an isolated problem. If it is in multiple bottles you could potentially have some bottle bombs.

You could have saved those dregs, but you can also use dregs from a commercial beer or buy brett and bacteria from Wyeast and White Labs.

Edit: Also, it's not a lambic, but perhaps a wild or sour ale. Some people can get pretty touchy when you get that label wrong. Carry on.

 

[troy2000]

You should try opening a few more bottles to see if it is an isolated problem. If it is in multiple bottles you could potentially have some bottle bombs.

You could have saved those dregs, but you can also use dregs from a commercial beer or buy brett and bacteria from Wyeast and White Labs.

Edit: Also, it's not a lambic, but perhaps a wild or sour ale. Some people can get pretty touchy when you get that label wrong. Carry on.

I've drunk about half of the five-gallon batch, and so far only the one bottle has come up tasting out of the ordinary. A pity; if the whole batch had come out like this I probably wouldn't be sober enough to type.

The 'touchy' people can pretty much stuff it, although of course I mean that in the kindest, most nonjudgmental way possible. I think reasonable folks understand what I mean, when I use the term lambic generically, to refer to Belgian-style sour beers that have been shaped by wild yeast and bacteria - even if they weren't brewed in Belgium.

add: OK, that was smart-mouth of me. It may have had something to do with falling off the beer wagon last night, and coming up with a bottle of Jim Beam... You're right; it isn't really a lambic. I should probably delete the thread, since I don't think I can edit the title. But I won't because you were polite enough to respond, and graciously try to educate me.

But all semantic wars aside, that was a delicious beer. I've only drunk one official lambic, and it was horrible. My LHBS owner laughed at me when I said so, but he didn't give enough weight to the fact that it was in a light green bottle - and the label and the foil on the neck were scuffed and worn, which means the bottle had been on the shelf for a while.

Can we say 'skunked,' boys and girls? I knew you could....