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Restarting a beer

Northern Brewer General
#1

I recently brewed up a batch of beer using Roeselare yeast and I think I may have racked it into secondary too soon (it’d been in primary for 1 month). I went with a relatively low-gravity brown ale recipe and wanted the funky flavors from the yeast but not with the high(er) alcohol content of an Oud Bruin or Flemish Red. Anyway, after an additional month in secondary, I’m not getting the flavor profile that I’d like…

What would happen if I went and boiled up another 2 gallons of water with DME and then racked the current beer on top and re-pitch the yeast (which I saved)? Am I playing with fire and possible infections (wait, isn’t it already an infected beer?!) or might I salvage this beer and turn it into something different?

#2

What don’t you like? its too soon to tell what it’ll be anyway, the wild yeast and bacteria take quite awhile to do their thing.

As far as getting a flavor profile, I’m not sure more DME is going to add anything significant. I could see brewing a small batch of something like dubbel and adding that. I’ve done this with my wooden barrel of Flanders red, pulling out beer and replacing with new beer. This works just fine and no you won’t risk infection.

#3

OK, I thought that part of the problem was due to impatience. Should I have left the beer on the yeast cake for longer than 1 month? I’ve never brewed with Roeselare to know how long I should leave it in primary.

I like the “brew another beer” and then mix idea. That makes a lot of sense and could be what I do - bottle some of this current beer and then mix the rest with another, younger, brew.

#4

You would get better results not racking off the wild yeast. I would add a portion of the saved yeast back to the beer along with the dregs from a couple bottles of quality sour - if you can get Jolly Pumpkin, go with that, and Cuvee Rene is also good (for some sour). And then wait a year.

#5

I repitched some of the yeast back last week but I like the idea of using yeast/bacteria from another beer. I’ve been itching to try a geuze (but that’s another topic).

I’d like more feedback and ideas but, at this point, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just call it quits with this batch and just start another one that tweaks this recipe. Then I’ll just leave both batches alone and see which one I like better in a year from now.

I’m open to other suggestions - since this is my first batch of “wild” beer, I’d like to know what others have done and/or what resources you’d suggest.

#6

I’d give it time.

FYI, last year I made an English barley wine. The OG was too low, and the FG was too high. I ended up adding a couple of pounds of DME straight to the fermenter without boiling (as well as some amylase and eventually more yeast.) I had no problem with infection.

#7

I rack off the yeast after a few weeks with these wild beers, at that point the Sacch is done and theres plenty of bugs still suspended that will populate the secondary.

#8

+1 bugs will transfer to secondary they just take a long time to do their thing. i wouldn’t expect much noticable funk or sour character til 3 + months, and a year til it gets good. adding dregs from good sours or more roselare blend wont hurt.

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