ECY20 Bug County Available

Thx for the heads up, just placed my order.

 

Surprised it lasted this long.. I got two vials of it to sit on for the time being, as it's always been popular and comes out once a year I believe.

That.. or people don't care for it anymore, already have some dregs left to continue to pitch, or traded for them.

 

Love2brew released it a month or so back. When I reached out to them they'd be getting more shipments. I think it is still once a year ish release, but ECY appears to have ramped up production a bit.

 

How long do you think you can sit on the vials while still being good?

 

I've gone over 9 months with ECY. There is increased lag time for sure but it eventually gets there and ferments just fine.

 

I could easily see 6 months..

I had a vial of Flemish Ale, that was old.. pitched it in with some other bugs and it took off just fine.

I get increased lag time for activity when they are old, but honestly, I'm pitching direct vials of bacteria/bugs/sach/brett blends.. sometimes with dregs, and expect that to happen.

 

Awesome, thanks.

Don't think Ill be able to hold off that long before pitching those wonderful bugs. Working up a Lambic recipe/process right now that I hope to have brewed by the end of the month/early Feb.

 

As I posted above, this mimics my experience to a T

 

Yeah youll have zero issue pitching them only about 2 months after they were made. Mine wasn't about wanting to wait, I just live near that store and had too many on hand - great problem to have

 

Definitely a great problem. This will be my first time using ECY and my first long term sour. I have made a bunch of Berliners using the sour wort method, but they always fermented out with a neutral yeast.

 

Did anyone else notice that the blend of bugs & bacteria is different with each release?

 

I've put it in the "cart" at least two times since this was posted, but I just can't pull the trigger. I simply don't trust the shippers to get it to me with everything viable at this time of the year. I mean...the HIGH tomorrow is -4°F.

 

feel your pain. if you do pull the trigger let me know if everything turns out although by then they will probably be all out.

 

Bug County contains Sacch so there is no need to pitch more, at least I never saw a reason to. The beers turn out great, I left my lambic style beer on the yeast cake the entire time and it began to get really funky as time went on (9-10 months), it only took about 4 to 5 months to develop a nice acidity.

 

Pitched it straight.. no other strains.

Like @OddNotion , I've left mine on the yeast cake, and they have some bracing sourness now, but at 3-4 months, they were plenty sour, and now the funk is getting... well.. funky. It's probably the funkiest beer I've smelled.

My ECY01 has come around really well. I've got a sour stout with commercial bugs/yeast blend like Melange and ECY Flemish in it, and I've got a sour farmhouse saison that is a ECY saison strain, and then bastardized with dregs of crooked stave, wicked weed and stillwater beers.

 

I did almost this same thing but went with Jester King dregs. Sounds like we have a few similar sounding beers going.

I also have an ECY01 beer from July that I really need to check on, it wasn't too sour or funky last time I checked but I hope its beginning to turn the corner.

 

Ohhhh.. I see a swap in our future.

My ECY01 is from April.. It's been in a warm garage after the sach gave up the game, and the moved to my laundry room along with another sour to stay warm.

It's sour as can be, and the funk is getting chart topping. I'm tempted to take a gravity reading of it. Thinking about tossing some spring fresh fruit in half of it.