Success (Saison+bugs)

[Wahoo]

Several months ago, i made a starter with the dregs of a number of beers, including Hannsens and Boon Gueuze, Bruery Saison Rue, Allagash Interlude, Saison duPont, etc. I let it ferment out and used it to innoculate a lambic, but in the meanwhile...

I had a leftover liter of saison that was in the fermenter after I kegged it. I put it in a huge swingtop bottle, added a little sugar, and a bit of the dregs from my bug farm....

That sat in my basement for about 3 months or so. I opened it this weekend and it was terrific. Very effervesent, lovely funk, not a ton of sourness, mostly brett aroma. Next year I think I will intentionally contaminate half my saison batch, it was really nice.

 

[yellowthere]

cool. Thanks for sharing.

Just curious, how big of a starter and did you go through all those sours at once?

 

[Wahoo]

I did go through all those sours in one day but I had a good amount of help from some buddies. I think my starter was about 1L, which frankly was too large. It took a number of days before it showed any signs of life and I think it would have been better around half that size or even less, and then add more wort once it got going. But all turned out well....

 

[dcHokie]

What was the FG of your fermented saison before adding the sugar, and how much sugar did you add?

Your sour/funky drinking party sounds awesome

 

[Wahoo]

The FG was a very dry 1.004. I am actually not sure off the top of my head how much sugar I added. I think it was probably something like 4-5 grams.