Im moving soon and was hoping to have all my beers kegged or bottled before moving because they just will be easier to move that way vs full buckets or carboys.
I have a full 5gal carboy of belgian red fermented with roselare blend. its been around 10 months since i brewed the beer originally. it stayed in the first carboy for two months then i transfered to a second carboy with an oak stick and added another pack of roselare blend. it has been kept at around 70 deg for the last 8 months. it is beautifully clear had a nice filmy pellicule on top for a while. the flavor is slightly tart and a little funky. all is well but i was thinking it could be a bit more sour. and the fg is still around 1.019 so the bugs should still have some more food.
i want to bottle it for east of transport. but if the beer wont achieve its potential or if i risk bottle bombs because of the high fg then i will leave it in the carboy a while. and consider adding bottle dregs or more roselare blend.
basically i am wondering if it will continue to develop if i bottle it. and if i risk overcarbonation or bottle bombs if i dont let the bugs chew down the gravity some before bottling.
If it’s at 1.019, I wouldn’t risk bottling it unless you sulfite it to kill the yeast (and lock in the current profile) and then bottle with fresh “regular” yeast.
yeah it thought 1.019 was kinda high and i had hoped for more tart character. compared to rodenbach its less tart. so maybe im gonna have to abondon the idea of bottling and start think of how to getting it going again.
Im not hugely adept with sours but there are a few that i really like. rodenbach flanders red being one. any suggestions on what to do to get it goin in that direction. or maybe even do nothing and wait for a few more months, rodenbach is 18 mont old ale blended with fresh if i remember correctly. other than the notion to get it packaged before moving i have no problem with waiting or trying something different.
its good i just feel like with the high fg theres more potential the funk is just slowing up or stalled. i noticed big changes around the three and six months tastings but i feel like its kind slowed down
[quote=“aluminumpark”]Do yourself a favor: make another batch of beer and innoculate it with some of the red you already brewed + whatever yeast you have laying around.
I just kegged a blend of one and two year old flanders red and its a lot better than either tasted on their own.[/quote]
thats i good idea to get a second carboy of funky beer going. my plan was to bottle all but a half gallon of this then put a brown ale on top of it with some uso5 and figs. maybe ill put another red on these guts and siphon some of this beer into the brown with figs. my goal is to to innoculate several batches of funky beer with this batch so i get healthy supply of sours.
the first one just seems takes so long. thats why im try to be patient with this one and get it right, i see this one being my base for my future house sour batches.
[quote=“bdaugherty”]yeah it thought 1.019 was kinda high and i had hoped for more tart character. compared to rodenbach its less tart.[/quote]If all you need is a little lactic tartness to finish it off, add the dregs of a bottle or two of Cuvee Rene to the fermenter and give it six more months.
my palate on sours is not incredibly experienced. i know enough to tell its not quite there, but not enough to know how to fix it. tartness is somewhat lacking that is apparent.will the gravity also drop with some Cuvee Rene dregs combined with time.
btw im excited to find and try some Cuvee Rene i havent tried it and need a good excuse to head to the bottle shop. are there any other beers that may have dregs that would be helpful for my situation in case i cannot find Cuvee Rene. Also since i am heading to a bottle shop in the near future are there any beers you would recommend to expand my sour beer palate.
Anything by Jolly Pumpkin is good for dregs. Fresh bottles are a little funky, but age them for a year or 3 and you will have a sour punch to the face!
At ten months of age I think most of the CO2-generating activity is over. I’m surprised the gravity is still that high, you might check again. It will continue to get more sour with time but I don’t think that generates CO2.
Cuvee Rene dregs will eat through at least some of the complex carbs and might help to break things down further so other bugs in the Roselaere are able to get at them which will then lead to other things breaking down - it’s a layered process that just takes time.
Rene is kind of unique in my experience in that it’s a really clean sour with little funk. If you can find a Jolly Pumpkin beer, their dregs make good beer (I have one going now with La Roja dregs that smells promising so far). Duvel is always dependable - it’s not sour, but you could pitch some into your next batch.
I think it will continue to develop more sourness even after being bottled, without adding dregs. It’d certainly be safer to bottle without adding anything other than a little Sacch yeast.
I’ve never used the dregs, but Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour is pretty nice and supposedly has pitchable dregs. It’s a combo of Brett + bugs and has a nice lactic bite in the finished beer.
This being one of my first sour batches. I had researched a lot of interweb stuff and understood that the bugs would need some food after the sach yeast was done so i probably over compensated with high mash temps and crystal. i have the recipe somewhere but not on hand right now. It was around ten to fifteen percent crystal and a 154+ mash.(high crystal and high mash temps make high fg) It had some wheat and some vienna or munich and around 15ibus.In hindsight im not that suprised about the gravity. I probably over compensated due to interweb hype and my overaction.
I would have never brewed a beer with that recipe but i figured “it was different cause its sour” It will dry Its self out in a year with those “crazy bugs”
In hindsight im not that suprised about the gravity. i probably over compensated due to interweb hype.
A lot of the stuff i read said " the bugs need food
But truly if sach finished at a normal 1.012 to 1.018 there would still be plenty of food to get funky with.
(in hindsighht i blew the need for bug food out of proportion)
Thanks for the post thats the only post that has talked about co2 directly. I didnt know if furthur bottle development would also produce co2 which is one of my concerns considering the fg at present. i would be ok with bottling early if the flavor will develop in the bottle but i dont want to bottle if co2 will build with bottle flavor development.
I don’t think there significant CO2 evolved at this point, at least my own bottlings haven’t seemed to get overly carbonated with additional time. But they do tend to get more sour for awhile.
I know what you mean about getting fooled by the hype surrounding sours. The whole turbid mash concept sounds neat but I’ve made a really nice lambic with extract (Dawsons Kriek) and several Flanders reds and other lambics with conventional mashes. I have thrown a tablespoon of flour in a boil but I think that just settles to the bottom of the fermentor during the Sacch ferm stage. I’ve also added cherries and I can tell you for sure that the bugs don’t eat these up even after several months.
that may be the case the tartness is present. but since it not dry its doesnt really pucker up your lips. like i have said i think this beer is good and i already feel like i like it. but i dont want to cut off its potential. or as stated my biggest concern bottled bombs. beacase if its overcarbonated ill never know if it got better or changed in the bottle any way.
[quote=“bdaugherty”]or as stated my biggest concern bottled bombs. beacase if its overcarbonated ill never know if it got better or changed in the bottle any way.[/quote]Do you keg? Easiest solution would be to just keg it and get it cold and drink as-is.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]I don’t think there significant CO2 evolved at this point, at least my own bottlings haven’t seemed to get overly carbonated with additional time. But they do tend to get more sour for awhile.
I know what you mean about getting fooled by the hype surrounding sours. The whole turbid mash concept sounds neat but I’ve made a really nice lambic with extract (Dawsons Kriek) and several Flanders reds and other lambics with conventional mashes. I have thrown a tablespoon of flour in a boil but I think that just settles to the bottom of the fermentor during the Sacch ferm stage. I’ve also added cherries and I can tell you for sure that the bugs don’t eat these up even after several months.[/quote]
thats what i think im realizing if you get the bugs or bacteria that you want in said beer they will do as their job over time.
this been being so flabby at 1.019 im in a little bit of “salvage” phase
