Bottling an Old Sour with a Young Beer

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Tpat_11, Nov 20, 2018.

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  1. Tpat_11

    Tpat_11 Initiate (0) Nov 20, 2018 Alabama

    Hey all,

    This is my first attempt at this so i was curious if anyone has been down this path that might be able to help me out.
    First, I have a 2 year old sour blonde ale in an oak barrel (5 gal) made with Roeselare yeast culture that i plan on blending with a fresh Brown Ale (Wyeast 1335) straight out of the secondary fermenter after being in there for about a week. Will i need to add more yeast along with the priming sugar when I bottle it? If so, any idea how much?

    Second, I have the same question above but I'm blending the Sour Blonde Ale with a Belgian Dubbel thats been in the fermenter for 6 months. Yeast needed for bottling?
     
    #1 Tpat_11, Nov 20, 2018
  2. InVinoVeritas

    InVinoVeritas Initiate (0) Apr 16, 2012 Wisconsin

    I'm not really sure about answering your question regarding the need for new yeast.

    However, what I would be concerned with is the Brett in Roeselare. Both the Brown and Dubbel, will have complex sugar chains, that saccharomyces yeast was unable to break down and ferment, yet brettanomyces can and will. In other words, do this and you're likely to have bottle bombs.

    If you're going to do this, best success will be to force carbonate via keg and keep cold. This suggestion makes your question regarding the need for new yeast moot.
     
    #2 InVinoVeritas, Nov 21, 2018
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  3. EvenMoreJesus

    EvenMoreJesus Initiate (0) Jun 8, 2017 Pennsylvania

    What is the pH of the beers in question? If they are not terribly different, you should be fine. If not, you might want to reyeast to avoid terminal acid shock, but you could probably get away without reyeasting because you have Brettanomyces in your fermentations. Either way, as @InVinoVeritas mentioned above, you'll want to give those beers a couple months of time together after blending to make sure you've reached a stable terminal gravity before packaging.

    http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Saccharomyces#Fermentation_Under_Low_pH_Conditions

    http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Packaging#Acid_Shock_Starters
     
    #3 EvenMoreJesus, Nov 21, 2018
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  4. Tpat_11

    Tpat_11 Initiate (0) Nov 20, 2018 Alabama

    Awesome thank you! Good information in those links. The Sour Blonde/Dubbel blend was going to be put back in the barrel for 6 more months (adding cherries for the last 3) before bottling so adding yeast and corn sugar should be fine at that point correct?

    I was going to bottle the Sour Blonde/Brown Ale right after blending but will probably let it play together for a while like you say before doing so.

    Or, do you think there will be enough sugars in the Brown Ale and Dubbel for the Brett to carbonate the bottle itself with little help from priming sugar? I'm trying not to keg this beer if I can get away with it.
     
    #4 Tpat_11, Nov 21, 2018
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  5. EvenMoreJesus

    EvenMoreJesus Initiate (0) Jun 8, 2017 Pennsylvania

    #5 EvenMoreJesus, Nov 21, 2018
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  6. Tpat_11

    Tpat_11 Initiate (0) Nov 20, 2018 Alabama

    Nice! That blending calculator is pretty awesome, should come in very handy for future batches.
     
    #6 Tpat_11, Nov 21, 2018
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