In hindsight, I wish I would have started a thread on this beer months ago, but there was no real plan at the start. I just sort of rolled along making decisions as I brewed other beers and as I started getting more and more interested in drinking sour beers. So here is my tale. Sorry for the long post.
Early in 2015, I decided to make a series of Scottish shilling ale using generations of the same yeast culture: WLP028. Going from 60, 70, to 80 and ending in a wee heavy. When I bottled the 70 and 80 shillings, I decided I didn't need so many bottles of these beers and racked some into gallon jugs with sour dregs. On my wee heavy brew day, I did a parti-gyle so as not to waste the big grain bill. I ended up with about 3 gallons of 1.030 wort after the boil. Here are some details on the bugs used in these three batches.
3/4 Gallon of 70 Shilling with dregs from Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille
3/4 Gallon of 80 Shilling with dregs from Logsdon Seizoen Bretta.
3 Gallons of parti-gyle Scottish ale in a bucket soured WLP028 slurry and these dregs: The Bruery Hottenroth, Eagle Rock Yearly & Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza.
After the 3 gallons aged in a fermenter bucket for 3 months, I rack it into a carboy along with the 70 & 80-shilling batches and 0.5 oz. French oak cubes.
About a month later, I added 2/3 gallon of cherry melomel left over after another project. I also added about a quart of my nelson saison that was left over when I racked the rest of that beer onto a hibiscus tea. The mead was still around 1.050 and kicked up a fairly active new round of fermentation. I'm sure it was helped by the fresh 3711 from the saison.
With all these additions the total volume fills my 5-gallon carboy to about 1 inch under the bung.
4 months later (8 months after the parti-gyle brew day), I took a tasting sample.... "Very tart. Honey & cherry in the nose and in the taste. Light body. I get a little oak. Very bright acidic flavor. Im not really getting any maltiness. Somewhat enjoyable in a small sample but not sure Id want a whole bottle."
On Jan. 24, 2016, or about 10.5 months since the parti-gyle brew day, I racked most of the beer onto 4 pounds of thawed sour cherries that I've been saving and 4 oz. of maltodextrin. I racked 1 gallon of the Scottish sour back into a 1-gallon jug. I wanted to have headroom in the 5-gallon carboy because I wasn't sure how active the fermentation from the cherries would get. Turns out that it's not too active.
I'm not sure if I'll bottle that 1 gallon batch on its own or rack it back with the rest soon.
Anyway, that gets me up to date on this meandering experiment. I'm very curious to sample this again in 3 to 6 months.
Early in 2015, I decided to make a series of Scottish shilling ale using generations of the same yeast culture: WLP028. Going from 60, 70, to 80 and ending in a wee heavy. When I bottled the 70 and 80 shillings, I decided I didn't need so many bottles of these beers and racked some into gallon jugs with sour dregs. On my wee heavy brew day, I did a parti-gyle so as not to waste the big grain bill. I ended up with about 3 gallons of 1.030 wort after the boil. Here are some details on the bugs used in these three batches.
3/4 Gallon of 70 Shilling with dregs from Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille
3/4 Gallon of 80 Shilling with dregs from Logsdon Seizoen Bretta.
3 Gallons of parti-gyle Scottish ale in a bucket soured WLP028 slurry and these dregs: The Bruery Hottenroth, Eagle Rock Yearly & Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza.
After the 3 gallons aged in a fermenter bucket for 3 months, I rack it into a carboy along with the 70 & 80-shilling batches and 0.5 oz. French oak cubes.
About a month later, I added 2/3 gallon of cherry melomel left over after another project. I also added about a quart of my nelson saison that was left over when I racked the rest of that beer onto a hibiscus tea. The mead was still around 1.050 and kicked up a fairly active new round of fermentation. I'm sure it was helped by the fresh 3711 from the saison.
With all these additions the total volume fills my 5-gallon carboy to about 1 inch under the bung.
4 months later (8 months after the parti-gyle brew day), I took a tasting sample.... "Very tart. Honey & cherry in the nose and in the taste. Light body. I get a little oak. Very bright acidic flavor. Im not really getting any maltiness. Somewhat enjoyable in a small sample but not sure Id want a whole bottle."
On Jan. 24, 2016, or about 10.5 months since the parti-gyle brew day, I racked most of the beer onto 4 pounds of thawed sour cherries that I've been saving and 4 oz. of maltodextrin. I racked 1 gallon of the Scottish sour back into a 1-gallon jug. I wanted to have headroom in the 5-gallon carboy because I wasn't sure how active the fermentation from the cherries would get. Turns out that it's not too active.
I'm not sure if I'll bottle that 1 gallon batch on its own or rack it back with the rest soon.
Anyway, that gets me up to date on this meandering experiment. I'm very curious to sample this again in 3 to 6 months.