Anyone know if their stuff is bottle conditioned with something like champagne yeast? All of their bottles have some decent dregs in the bottom, hence the reason they use 500ml bottles with some nice punts in them. Curious if I could compile some dregs and maybe toss into something. Most of their stuff is rampant with Brett of all different strains, lacto, pedio, and all that good stuff. Alot of their stuff is open fermented, so I guess it's a crap shoot in some cases, but I'm not sure if they carb in a brite tank, and then bottle, wouldn't that reduce any yeast particulate in the bottles if they didn't bottle condition?
They would have to heat pasteurize the beer before bottling and carbonate with Champagne yeast to have no Brett or bacteria living in the bottles, or bottle, carb, heat pasteurize. So if they didn't do that, even if they filtered and used Champagne yeast to carb, there will be Brett and bacteria in the beer to culture. Give it a shot and see what happens. If your starter is super clean, you have Chapmagne, if tastes unferemented or bad then the bottles are probably pastuerized, if it is tart and fruity/funky you have bacteria and Brett.
Might be worth it then. I'm gonna drink their Bretticent tonight. Open fermented wild brett saison. Might toss the dregs into a vial.
@FATC1TY, how did this turn out for you? I'm reviving this thread because I'm planning my first sour and I've got a bottle of Black Angel starring at me that I'd love to use for pitching dregs. I've emailed the brewery about this topic and I'm waiting to hear if they are willing to share any info, but I'm curious how this worked out in practice.
I have a vial of dregs that I built up, kicked up hard and fast. Not sure what it is that is in there yet, but it is viable for sure. I need to step it up again and plate it out, maybe take it to a buddy and put it under a microscope. As far as using it with Champagne, if there is any Champagne yeast in the mix, it won't adversely effect the beer, even if you build up the dregs some to a small starter and pitch alongside some brewers yeast the Sacc will out compete the Champagne, and then all of them will become food for the Brett and bacterias as they die off.
Awesome, thanks for the info! I wasn't planning on building a starter for the dregs since I'm going to pitch a pack of Rosaelare to go with a healthy pitch of WY 1214, but good to know I could without any ill-effects from the Champagne yeast. I also planning on pitching dregs from a bottle of Side Project Blanc de Blancs, which is bottled with Champagne yeast, per the brewer, Cory King.
There is some seriously strong bugs in there.. I didn't build a starter, but I had a saison I added some of their Malice and Serenity to, along with a Genesis bottle and my saison is tart, almost slightly sour, funky, fruity and for whatever reason, it taste and smells like I've ran it through a white wine barrel... I've put a couple bottle dregs of Black Angel in with some yeast bay Melange in a sour stout and it's already sour as can be with some nice funk after just a few months.
Also, don't think the beers are carbed with another yeast. I'm pretty sure they force carb their stuff, and the sediment in the bottles is just what is naturally in the beer to begin with. Save their bottles though. The heavy punted 500ml bottles that a regular capper can tackle are worth their weight in gold! I'd venture to say their dregs are on par, and just as hearty as Crooked Stave. I've got some CS bottles, and I'm saving dregs to pitch into a basic low og saison this spring.
Fantastic, now I'm getting really excited! Did you pitch a commercial sour blend with your saison or just the aforementioned dregs?
The saison was a straight clean sacch blend from ECY.. I think it was ECY14, but dont quote me. I then added some brett brux dregs, and then a couple bottles of different wicked weed sours/saisons, since most of their beers are saison bases, fermented with their house culture. I doubt the cultures are all brett, as I do get some tartness in their beers, especially the barrel aged ones, which most are, I suspect there's some vorocious lacto, and perhaps a pedio strain. The sour stout I have their black angel dregs, was pitched with just one, but maybe two vials of yeast bays melange, which is a sach blend with sour bacteria and some brett I believe.
For anyone that's still interested, below is the response I got to my email to Wicked Weed asking about the dregs in Black Angel and using them in a home brew. I think much of the information was clear based on people's positive experiences with pitching their dregs, as detailed above, but here it is for completeness... "as far as whats in the blend... yes the whole mix of sac, brett, lacto and pedio. its an evolving culture that we have been developing for years. It will be viable and will be heavy on brett and lacto. i would suggest doing a sac or bretta primary with the beer, while at the same time growing the dregs up in a 200ml flask on a stir plate. at 80% terminal on primary pitch in the bugs and let the beer free rise."
Thanks, added a few to my dregs list: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/p/dreg-list.html (getting impossible to keep up with so many newly bottled sours!)
Yeah, any and all of wicked weeds bottles are ripe with a verocious brett blend.. I don't know what all is in there, as it's not all fruit and not all funk, but it does WORK on some wort. It will sour it, depending on the beer, so.. Barrel aged will be sour, the non barrel aged, like Bretticent, and even their Gin barrel aged Briars and Brett, aren't sour, so clean for the most part, other than brett.
I'm glad they responded. They are nice folks at WW, and it's always nice to see homebrewers at the core, still helping out fellow brewers. I enjoy the beers, if anything for the insane bacteria/brett blends they have. Complex doesn't begin to explain them.
FYI, they are hosting an AHA Rally tomorrow at their Funkatorium. The 'parting gift' is a sack of barrel chips with the house bugs, a la Vinnie a few yrs ago.
