If anyone has been trying to get some ECY 20 Bug County it is currently available at Love2brew. I've been checking their website almost everyday for a month and saw it today.
Just started drinking the first pull of a Solera soured with ECY20. The funk is starting to come on at after about a year.
It is a 15 gallon barrel (see avatar), and, with my system, I brewed ~6 gallons at a time. The first was primary fermented with 3787 and bottled dregs, the second with 1/2 cup of the previous yeast cake, the third with ECY 20 alone. Many bottle dregs along the way: when transferring into the barrel & in the barrel. Given the size of the barrel and rawness if the oak (O2 transfer was been less of an issue given that it is an American oak barrel (I do top off every 3 months)), I will pull about half of the volume every 6 months. The first refill batch was a clean ferment outside of the barrel with Belle Saison. Half that pull was bottled plain, half on the cherries. The SG is currently 1.008 with a bit if a range of OGs, but I figure the ABV is ~6% (a bit higher than I was going for). Due for another pull in Janurary, with half that pull destined for dry hops.
Is this shipping typically >$14 for one vial of yeast? Couldn't pull the trigger. I'll have to see what else I need to make the shipping worth it.
Cool so your abv isn't stunting your brett development. Sounds like the only factors that might be slowing funk development down a bit (I'm no wild ale expert, just looking at it from a common sense perspective) would be primary fermenting the first batch with 3787 and the constant dilution of the beer with fresh wort (unavoidable condition of a solara project). My curiosity stems from wanting to gauge how long to sit on some of my bug farm batches and the newer wild ales I'll be making eventually (I've got 2x bug county bottles and 1x dirty dozen brett bottle in stow)
I've never considered the solera as being diluted, more providing nutrients for the microbes (I routinely mash ~ 159 for sours and usually use a significant amount of raw grains). I have a feeling I'm not getting as much O2 transfer as I want, even given the small size of the barrel. There is PLENTY of Brett in there, with the ECY20 and all the dregs. The funkiest beer I ever made was a lambic that primarily fermented in a plastic bucket for ~ 9 months. Aside from lysed Sacc, I'm assuming the Brett's phenolic development benefitted from all the extra O2.
As you add wort that has yet to be "funkified" you are inherently diluting the "overall funk level" of the wort in the barrel, no?
I think it's akin to stepping up a mixed microbial culture. More nutrients leading to more growth. Otherwise it wouldn't get more sour/funky (which it is).
No doubt you are feeding the culture by adding fresh wort and, in time, it will produce lots of brett character. But, for the time being, you are also diluting the overall brett character when you do so. So when you say that after 1 year you are just starting to see the funk come on, I factor the fresh wort additions (as dilutions) into your timeline based observation.
If the microbes or brett stopped growing and reproducing, yes you would be correct. But that is not the case. Brett/yeast/microbes feed off the sugars in the fresh wort and reproduce. Sure the funk is diluted when the fresh wort is first introduced, but that will change over time as the brett slowly chew through the new sugars.
I never stated that they stopped. Quite to the contrary, I stated exactly what you are now reiterating when I mentioned.. but thank you for your response none the less. My point is that a wild ale given 1 year to develop should have, all other factors being equal, more potential for "real time" brett presence than a solera ale given the same 1 year to develop (where top offs have been made multiple times over the course of that 1 year). The reason being the dilution factor when fresh wort, that hasn't had an opportunity to be fermented by brett yet, is added. This you seem to already agree with me on.
koopa's right. finsfan: the funk will be there by month 3. sourness? maybe longer. complexity? 1 year. depth and complexity? 18 months and it's crazy. by pitching more wort, you're not adding depth. you're hoping to re-start the process, but that likely doesn't happen unless sacc's still around and kicking...which it may not be since the pH will be dropping due to lacto/pedio. so you're basically turning pedio/lacto/brett into primary yeasts instead of secondary yeasts and they're eating the larger-chained sugars and not doing the dirty work, which is what produces funk. but most bretts, in my opinion, express funkitude after 6+ months when they are used as primary yeasts. you get some umami from them with time.
